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Mughal Paintings
Mughal Paintings
• Mughal painting is a style of Indian painting which emerged from Persian miniature.• It began in the courts of the Mughal
Empire (16th - 19th centuries), and later spread to other Indian courts, both Muslim and Hindu, and later Sikh.
DIFFERENCES FROM PERSIAN MINIATURE PAINTING
• Extended sense of space.• Realistic style.• Agitated action rarely seen
in Persian art.
Hunting expedition
Features
• Exquisitely detailed and finely drawn.
• Lively and realistic.
• Elements of portraiture.
• Muted, more pastel, representing the nature, and earth tones dominated the mood of the paintings.
• Beautiful Calligraphy.
• Magnificent ornaments created elegant borders.
• Historical painting.
• High viewpoint and 3 dimensional nature.
• Book illustrations or as single works to be kept in albums.
Jehangir and nur jahan
JOURNEY OF MUGHAL ART
Origin• Humayun became enamoured by the
art of miniature painting in Persia.
• He brought back two persian masters, Mir Sayyid Ali and Abdus Samad.
• They became the founders of the new Mughal school of Indian painting.
• Humayan's major known commission was a Khamsa of Nizami with 36 illuminated pages.
Akbar• Between 1562 and 1577 the atelier
worked on an illustrated manuscript of the Hamzanama consisting of 1,400 canvas folios.
• European influence.
• Cultural synthesis can be traced from its flat decorative beginnings through a blending with a lively Rajasthani and finally to its move towards realism.
• Illustration of manuscripts with themes from Persian literature, Indian epics, court scenes, animal fables and battles.
• Mughal style during this period continued to refine itself with elements of realism and naturalism coming to the fore.
Alexander lowered into the sea from the khamsa of amir khusrau
Jehangir• Under Jahangir, Akbar's lively naturalism
was advanced into a calmer and strongly realistic approach.
• Brushwork became finer and the colors lighter.
• European influence.
• Encouraged his royal atelier to take up the single point perspective favoured by European artists, unlike the flattened multi-layered style used in traditional miniatures.
• Paintings depicting events of his own life, individual portraits, and studies of birds, flowers and animals.
Squirrels in a chenar tree by Mansur
Jahangir seated on a allegorical throne by Bichitr
Jahangir and Nur-jahan
Shah Jahan• Paintings gradually became cold and rigid.
• Themes including musical parties; lovers, sometimes in intimate positions, on terraces and gardens; and ascetics gathered around a fire, abound in the Mughal paintings of this period.
• well-embellished portraits with exact likeness of the portrayed figures.
Portrait of Shah jahan
Revival under Muhammad Shah
In sections of former empire such Murshidabad in Bengal and Lucknow in Oudh, a shadow of the former imperial style was kept alive and subjects a hundred or more years old were copied as if to recapture the heroic grandeurs of the past.
The marriage procession of Dara Shikoh
● Jain monks and scholars of medieval India wrote thousands of manuscripts related to their religious literature. These manuscripts contain some beautiful miniature paintings
● The earliest known miniature paintings are from 11th Century
Jain Painting
Jain Painting● One of the earliest art forms● Used palm-leaves for their
inscriptions with decorative and flat style
● Early palette restricted to simple reds,yellows,blue,brown etc
● Although that changed with the introduction of paper
• The significant feature is the stylish figure of the women in the paintings.• Used strong colors and liked to
show enlarged eyes of the persons in the paintings.• The artist also liked to decorate
the persons with ornaments.
Miniature Painting from Kalakacharya Katha
Jain Painting
• Jain miniature paintings are found mainly in old Rajasthani, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi and Kannada manuscripts.
• The colors were made especially from vegetables, minerals and even from gold and silver.
• This art of miniature painting began to decline after 16th century.
Jain Painting
Miniature Painting from Chandana Malayaqiri Varta
Lesya(Mental Attitude Painting)
• Lesya is a Jain concept of mental attitude, where different persons think and behave differently for getting same thing.
• In this beautiful multicolored miniature painting from a Jain manuscript, we see that the 6 persons want to get fruits
Jain Painting
Rajasthani (Rajput)
Most of the time depicted events of epic,beautiful landscapes and humans.
Radha and Krishna was probably the favourite theme in Rajput paintings
Nihal Chand
Rajasthani (Rajput)• The preparation of desired colors was
a lengthy process, sometimes taking weeks.
• The colors were extracted from certain minerals, plant sources, conch shells, and were even derived by processing precious stones.
Nihal Chand
Rajasthani Paintings• While Mughal art is
realistic, Rajasthani is symbolic and filled with poetic metaphor
• All men are symbols, all nature is symbolic
• Women are symbolic of all feminity
• Artist’s ultimate desire was to clarify man’s relationship with god
Rajasthani Paintings
Vasant Ragini, Kota, Rajasthan
• Ragamala means garland of melody or mode• Poems dealing with musical
sentiments are illustrated by representations of specific human situations• The Ragamala series were prized for
their narrative as well as the visual effect of their use of rich, vibrant colours
Rajasthani Painting
• Different colours were given different meanings• Red connoted fury• Yellow showed the marvellous• Brown signified erotic• Colours were also used to
represent specific musical notes
PAHARI Miniature Paintings
The Origin:• The exact origin of miniature painting style practised at the Hindu Courts in Himalyan
Foothills remain unknown.
• Frist known examples were in the states of Basohli, Kahlur and Mankot , painted in 1650.
• The invasion of India and the sack of Delhi in 1739 provided the catalyst for refinement of
Pahari Art.
• The Rajasthani Hindu courts welcomed the displaced Mughal artists. The Hill elements of
realism and Mughal Craftmanship from “The Muhammad Shahi revival ” contributed
significantly to the evolving Pahari aesthetics.
Pahari, BasohliKrishna Arriving at
Radha’s House, Rasamanjari of Bhanudatta
1660-70 Key features
• Flat red background and
an ornate pavillion
• Rich colour scheme
• Gargoyle-like ornament
on the base of pavillion
Pahari, Guler
The arrest of Spies, Seige of Lanka,Ramayana
Pahari guler 1725
Key features• The series illustrates the acitivities
of Rama and his allies before
climactic battle of Lanka
• On the reverse, they were inscribed
with text of the great epic poem.
Pahari, GulerLady with a Hawk
Guler,1750
Key features:
• Set after twenty-five years of Siege of Lanka,
the Mughal Influence has set itself into the
mainstream style
• The subtle tones and shading skilfully
depict the flesh tones ,sheer fabrics and the
setting in the inner apartment of the palace.
Pahari, MandiRaja Shamsher Sen with his son Surma
Sen,Mandi ,1775
Key features
• The plain, vivid powder-
blue background and the
stiff ,boldly stripped carpet
• Smaller figure of prince
Pahari, Jammu
By the master artist of Jammu court,
Nainsukh
Raja Balwant Singh of Jammu
smoking alone on a Palace roof
in the rains(July-August
1751)
Pahari, KangraIntroduction of love and romance in art
Radha and Krishna in the Grove (1780)
From the atelier of Raja Sansar Chand
(1775-1823)
The Swing (1790)
The Kangra Style:• generally have a central elegant female form• expresses an innocent and open sensuality• features traditionally symbolic elements (dark clouds, rain, swing in this work)
Pahari, GarhwalConsiderably influenced by Kangra
The Road to Krishna (1780)
Illustrating an episode from
Bhagavata Purana
Termination of Miniature Art
Domination of India by British
Demise of Rajput Art Centres
Making stiff, hollow copies of the past
Misunderstood interpretations of Western
art
Introduction of ‘Company Paintings’