Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c13.11

Language: English

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Such was the general character of the Arab illustrated manuscripts of the thirteenth century, a striking attempt at a revival of pictorial art evincing in their intention a naïve sincerity which promised much. But whether these early attempts would have developed on natural lines into a definite school will never be known, for in 1258 Baghdad, and the culture that it represented, was destroyed, and the progress of art in Persia received another check. The force that swept away the Arab régime on the Tigris came this time from the East, and was a political convulsion which changed the whole aspect of civilization in the Orient. This was the invasion of the Mongols. The course of the Central Asian hordes, gathering momentum as they swept across the continent, was, in its first phase, like that of the Arabs, one of the most appalling destruction. In their primitive state these barbarians had little use for the refinements of any form of civilized life, and resented them in others. Fortunately after a time this stage passed away, and, as they became less nomadic, their spirit craved for something of a more permanent nature than the tented city of their earlier days. Having no artistic attainments of their own, they were compelled to go to those whom they had conquered for the embellishment of their courts, and all the arts of peace. The first country to feel the Mongol influence, when these tribes broke away from their pasturage on the Central Asian steppes, was China.

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To this artistic people, therefore, the Mongols soon began to look for aesthetic inspiration, employing Chinese painters and craftsmen, even carrying them away in the course of their triumphant progress, to distant capitals to decorate their palaces and adorn their halls. In this manner was brought about that similarity which is noticeable in the arts of the east and west of Asia during the Mongolian era. For the time being the greater part of the continent was under the rule of one house, and interchange of thought over wide areas became an easy matter. While Persia was imbibing the art of the Far East as practised under the Sung dynasty, so Chinese artists were probably drawing something from the west. We see this in the thirteenth-century painting of Ch'ien Hsuan, and also in the early porcelain of China which was decorated sometimes with panels of a Kufic script. But the fusion of the arts of Asia under the Mongol flux had another result. Persia had previously looked mainly westward for inspiration, drawing it indirectly from European sources; but from now onward for several centuries it turned its back deliberately on the Occident, and looked steadfastly towards the rising sun. From this time the schools of China were its classics, and to these it owes much of the spirit of its art. From China were brought many cunning workmen skilled in all industries, decorators in glaze, embroiderers and painters.

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One of the Mongol Khans, Hulagu, is said to have imported over a hundred families of Chinese artisans and craftsmen to his court in Persia to carry out his artistic schemes. Settling down in the bazaars of Iran they carried on their trade exactly as they had done for centuries in Pekin, except that they adapted their designs to the requirements of their Mongol overlords. And on occasion, consignments of Chinese art, paintings and porcelain, metal-work and carved wood, would arrive by caravan at the western capitals of the Mongol empire to be applied to the buildings, to decorate the interiors, or to grace the festive entertainments of the ruling Khans. Thus by the fourteenth century Persian art had become a provincialized form the Roman world, and the most important events of the reign of Antoninus Pius, are related by his biographer, and the reader will not be sorry to find them here in a more concise form. The reign of Antoninus Pius is marked by the rare advantage of furnishing very few materials for history; which is only another mode of saying that its happiness was complete. During the twenty-three years of his administration, the Roman empire was governed by the same invariable maxims of justice and peace. The natives of a vast extent of country were protected by the same laws, and enjoyed the same privileges. The frontiers were defended by the same legions, and the same spirit of moderation and equity prevailed in the councils of the emperor.

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The death of Antoninus was lamented as a public calamity; and the memory of his virtues was preserved by the gratitude of his subjects, and the imitation of his successor.