Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c13.18

c13.18

Although there is no actual record of Timur's personal interest in the art of painting, his patronage showed itself in other ways, in the encouragement of poets, musicians, and philosophers who flocked to his brilliant court, and in the magnificent style in which he built and embellished his capital at Samarqand. Architecture, under this dynasty, was regarded as the noblest of all the arts, and the cities of the Timurids, sumptuously planned as they were, undoubtedly laid the foundation of the notable aesthetic movement that was to follow. The first prince of this royal line to maintain painters at his court was Shah Rukh. He was Timur's favourite son, and ruled at Herat, but his authority extended over the whole of Persia. Shah Rukh himself was a man of scholarship, a song-writer of no mean order, but he specially concerned himself with the achievements of other countries. In 1419 he sent a well-equipped mission to China, and later, one to India, with instructions that its members were to keep a journal noting all that was remarkable in each town and each province through which they passed. With the embassy to China was included an artist, Ghiyath ud-din Khalil, an expert with the brush, and one of the earliest Persian painters to be mentioned by name. The artistic connexion with the schools of the Far East, begun by the Mongols, was therefore continued under the Timurids, for Babur in describing one of the mosques of Samarqand does not fail to remark that it was adorned with Chinese pictures. Although Shah Rukh's reign was a record of artistic encouragement, he was succeeded by several princes of the house of Timur, who equalled if not excelled him as patrons of learning and especially as ardent bibliophiles. At Astarabad, Baisunghar, a son of Shah Rukh, retained forty artists all employed in copying or illustrating manuthe 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. 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.