Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c13.23

c13.23

scripts under the supervision of Maulana Ja‘far, one of the leading illuminators of the day. The work of the painters in the service of this prince was of sufficient importance to be referred to by later writers as the Baisunghar school. Ulugh Beg, another son, was a distinguished scholar, and did much to enrich Samarqand, and also Marv, with colleges and libraries. At Bukhara, too, learning flourished, and, later, painting was developed to such an extent that this city also has given its name to a school of illustrative art. But it was left to the state of Khurasan, when this was governed by the Sultan Husain Mirza, towards the end of the fifteenth century, to make the most notable contribution to the rising fame of the Persian school. At the court of this ruler, who was a great-grandson of Timur’s son ‘Umar Shaikh, was gathered a galaxy of talent, renowned poets such as Jami and Hatifi, historians such as Mir Khwand and his grandson Khwandamir, with many others whose names are treasured in the literary annals of the East. But the greatest of all this brilliant gathering was the painter Bihzad. What Raphael was to the art of Europe, Bihzad was to the art of Asia, so that he has been fittingly referred to as the ‘ Raphael of the East ’. It is doubtful whether the history of art records any other single individual who has exercised a more direct influence on the graphic art of his time than Bihzad. He had numerous pupils and followers, some of whom, such as Aga Mirak, Sultan Muhammad, and Mirza Ali, assimilated much of his excellence, but none of them ever attained the exquisite drawing or superb colouring of this great master of the craft, an example of whose work is reproduced in Plate II. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Persian character observable in the painting of India during the Mughal period came straight from the hand of Bihzad. Pictures by Mir Sayyid Ali, the leading Persian painter in India in the service of the Mughals, whose father was a contemporary of, and worked with, Bihzad, are referred to by most authorities as in the style of this master. But it was in the subject of portraiture, one of the most striking developments of the Mughal art, that the Indian school shows its closest affinity with the productions of Sultan Husain’s protégé. Previous to the appearance of Bihzad, Persian painters had displayed no special gift for portraiture, although it was exceedingly popular with their patrons. These had to be content with rather crude attempts at likenesses on the part of their court artists, spirited productions depicting the general features of the sitter, but in no sense finished specimens of the portrait painter’s art. The faces they drew were what is known as the ‘ impersonal ’ type, that is to say, the facial outlines of each person represented were fundamentally very much alike, being distinguished only by the addition of one or two special details peculiar to the individual concerned. For instance, all women's faces were exactly similar except for differences in the coiffure and other minor accessories, while men had the addition of a beard or moustache, but little else in the features to discriminate one from the other. The advent of Bihzad changed all this. His genius freed the art of portraiture from this impersonal convention, bringing into it life and character by means of his exquisite drawing and modelling. Some of the finest pictures of the Persian school are Bihzad's portraits of his patron and members of his court. The art of producing a likeness therefore came fully developed to India, and accounts to some extent for the wholly matured school of portraiture which flourished under the Mughals.