Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c13.17

c13.17

Persian art remained in the manner described under Chinese-Mongol influence for a hundred years, but its association with the art of the Far East displayed itself long after the Mongol rule had passed away. The importance of this intercourse should be fully realized, as it explains much of the character of the Persian and Indian work which followed. It brought into Persian painting, and, indirectly, into the miniatures of India, that calligraphic outline which is one of its most distinguishing features. More than that, it stimulated the drawing of the figure, and especially gave to it that rhythmic quality and flowing contour which it retained from this time onward throughout its course. Under the Mongols the centres of the art, which, as we have seen were previously located on the Tigris, were moved to the seats of the Khans in Northern Persia. It is probable that most of the paintings of the Perso-Mongol style were executed either at Maraghah in Azarbaijan, Sultania, or Tabriz, where the courts were mainly held. But the next phase of the art developed much farther east, in the cities of the Oxus—Bukhara and Samarqand. Here, amidst the chaos caused by the disintegration of the Mongol empire in the later half of the fourteenth century, a new power arose, which was to have a marked effect on the political situation of Persia, and of Asia generally. The central figure of this movement was the Amir Timur—Tamerlane—one of the most ruthless despots Asia has ever produced. But although an iconoclast, where religions other than his own were concerned, Timur was, in his capital at Samarqand, a great patron of learning and the arts. This appreciation of the intellectual talents of others, which compensates not a little for the immense destruction he brought about in other countries, especially in India, was not confined only to the founder of the dynasty. It was the family heritage of the Timurids, as several of his descendants brought even greater lustre to this great name by their marked interest in all forms of culture and refinement. And this tradition was carried by a scion of his house, the chivalrous Babur, to India, to produce two centuries later the art of the Mughals. In view, therefore, of its direct bearing on the painting of India, the Timurids, and the art that they so magnificently developed, may be more fully described.