MUGHAL PAINTING

Origin
Developed in the courts of the Mughal Emperors between the 16th and 19th centuries. It
was a combination between Ilkhanate Persian and Indian techniques and ideas. It begun
after Mughal victory over the Delhi Sultanate in 1526, where’s the tradition of miniature
painting in India abandoned the high abstraction of Persian style and began to adopt a more
realistic style of portraiture and drawing of plants and animals. Mughal painting usually took
the form of book illustrations or single sheets preserved in albums. There are four periods
commonly associate with Mughal art. the Akbar Period, the Jahangir Period, the Shah Jahan
Period, and the Aurangzeb Period
1. AKBAR PERIOD
During the time of Akbar, the Great (1556–1605) that Mughal painting experienced large-
scale growth. He was responsible for setting up the first atelier of court painters, which he
staffed with artists from all parts of India whose work he took a keen interest in. This atelier
was chiefly responsible for illustrating books on a variety of subjects: histories, romances,
poetry, legends, and fables of both Persian and Indian origin. Mughal paintings also started
illustrating an enhanced naturalism, with animal tales, landscape, portraits.
METHOD AND TECHNIQUE
Illustrations were executed by groups of painters, including a colorist (who was responsible
for the actual painting) and specialists in portraiture and the mixing of colors. A thin wash of
white was then applied, through which the outline remained visible. The colors were then
applied in several thin layers and rubbed down with an agate burnisher to produce a
glowing, enamel-like finish. The colors used were mostly mineral and sometimes vegetable
dyes, and the fine brushes were made from squirrel’s tail or camel hair.
2. JAHANGIR PERIOD
Jahangir the son of Akbar the Great, also share the same interest in painting and he
maintained his own atelier (workshop). The tradition of illustrating books assumed
secondary importance to portraiture during Jahangir’s reign because of the emperor’s own
preference for portraits.
Characteristic of Jahangir Mughal Painting
The composition lacks the vigor, movement, and vivid color characterized by the works of
Akbar’s reign; the figures are more formally ordered, the colors soft and harmonious, and
the brushwork particularly fine. The painting in this period is more to floral and geometric
borders.
EUROPEAN INFLUENCE
During Jahangir period, he was deeply influenced by European painting. He received gifts of
oil painting from England. Later then, he encouraged his workshop to copy the one-point
perspective favoured by European painters, unlike the flattened, multi-layered style
traditionally used in miniature painting.
3. SHAH JAHAN PERIOD
Mughal painting continued to flourish while the artistic focus of the Mughal court shifted
primarily to architecture under Shah Jahan. The style became more rigid than before, and
the portraits painting resembled abstract effigies. Mughal Paintings in this period were
particularly grand and expensive, as the colours used became jewel-like in their brilliance.
Popular themes included musical parties, lovers in terraces and gardens and sometimes
locked in intimate embraces with each other and also include the theme of ascetic and holy
men in the painting.
4. AURANGZEB AND LATE MUGHAL
During the Aurangzeb period (1658–1707), he did not encourage Mughal painting. It
resulted many Mughal painting was destroyed and only a few portraits survive his reign.
Most of them were accomplished in the cold, abstract style of Shah Jahan. While the art
form had gathered sufficient momentum to invite patronage in other courts—Muslim,
Hindu, and Sikh alike—the absence of strong imperial backing ushered in a decline of the art
form. A brief revival occurred during the reign of Muhammad Shah (1719–1748), who was
passionately devoted to the arts, but this was only temporary. Mughal painting essentially
came to an end during the rule of Shah Alam II (1759–1806), and the artists of his
disintegrated court contented themselves with copying masterpieces of the past.