Mughal painting

Milo Cleveland Beach writes that a recognisable Mughal style was formed under Akbar: the emperor placed the Iranians Mir Sayyid Ali and Abd al-Samad in charge of the painting studios, yet what emerged was a new style mixing Hindu (Rajput) and Muslim Indian elements with those of Safavid Iran. Akbar's "invention" of portraiture, and the shift from religious and poetic texts to historical scenes and natural history, were the period's great innovations. ¹

From the late sixteenth century into the mid-seventeenth, Mughal painting concentrated on naturalism, and above all on portraiture. Beach compares a Deccani elephant, which the line makes a general type, a Rajput one, which stays a generalised metaphor, and a Mughal one that presents a specific elephant in a relatively naturalistic space — a radical change of outlook within both Indian and Muslim contexts. ^{3 2} Persian works and European prints served as models, and European prints were the source of the new techniques of shading. ^{2 4}

Jahangir preferred small books with few, fine illustrations and single pictures for his albums, and discouraged the Akbari division of one picture among a designer, a colourist and a portraitist. ^{5 6} Under Shah Jahan the range of subjects narrowed, single portraits dominated, and technical perfection became expressive in its own right in painters such as Hashim, while Payag massed troops into great units — for the author a deeply Indian attitude. ^{7 8} He suggests that Dara Shikoh may have been the patron of the new direction, since so many major works show him. ⁸ When Aurangzeb withdrew from active patronage in the 1660s, many painters moved to provincial governors and nobles. ²