Bijapur painting

For Mark Zebrowski no paintings can be given to Bijapur before the reign of Ali Adil Shah I (1557–79), whose most important works are in the Nujum al-Ulum dated 978 AH/1570–71 and the Javahir al-Musiqat in Deccani Urdu. ^{3 4 5}

Ibrahim Adil Shah II was the greatest patron of the arts the Deccan produced, and Bijapuri painting suddenly erupted under him, brilliantly mature, its finest works equal to the best Mughal and Safavid paintings. ² The author isolates four anonymous masters named after their masterpieces' homes: the Bikaner painter of Ibrahim's procession, the Bodleian painter of a Dervish Receiving a Visitor, the Leningrad painter — whom he believes to be Farrukh Husain — and the Dublin painter. Bijapuri painting was so famous that Mughal artists such as Farrukh Beg and Muhammad Ali copied its conventions for Jahangir. ¹

After 1627 Mughal influence became paramount: painters imitated darbar scenes and single portraits, and signatures and dates appeared, as in Muhammad Khan's darbar of Muhammad Adil Shah granting him an annual stipend, dated 1651, proof of the painters' standing. Under Ali II and Sikandar native line and colour returned and marbled drawings appeared; the author holds that Bijapuri painting was entering a new phase when the Mughal conquest of 1686 cut it short. ^{1 6}