Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c14.2

c14.2

IN the previous chapter the course and character of the two schools of painting, Persian and Indian, have been outlined; while the general circumstances which brought the former art into Hindustan have also been noticed. But the fact that a country was invaded, and a dynasty founded, does not necessarily imply that these events, politically important though they might be, were accompanied by a revival of the arts, especially by the formation of a school of painting as distinctive as that of the Mughals. Something more was required; and this was provided by the intensely artistic nature of the Mughal emperors themselves. With such a tradition as that of the Timurids, an intelligent patronage of the arts naturally followed. But added to this there was the personal element, which showed itself distinctly in each succeeding phase of the painting of the Mughal school. The dynasty as a whole was so keenly interested in the arts that each emperor, as he came into power, put something of himself into the painting of his reign. To follow the development of Mughal painting, therefore, it is necessary to understand something of the individual temperament of those monarchs who did so much for its encouragement.