Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c14.46.3

c14.46.3

Associated with these, but a little more advanced in style, would be Timurid manuscripts, whose decorated pages showed the method of painting which prevailed under the ancestors of his own Mughal patrons. And, probably, most studied of all would be the collection of books containing illustrations by the Safavid school of painters, some of whom were still living in Akbar’s time and carrying on their art in the studios of Tabriz, Shiraz, and Herat. Among the treasured volumes in this section none would be more prized than those containing the work of that small group of Persian artists who, even then, were being regarded as the great masters of the craft. Bihzad, Sultan Muhammad, Aga Mirak, and Muzaffar Ali were at this early date names to conjure with, and their pictures to be referred to with the sincerest admiration. All these famous artists were represented in the royal collection at the Mughal capital. One volume alone which has been preserved to this day, and still bearing the imperial seals of the dynasty, boasts of twelve pictures of the Persian school, eight of them the handiwork of the illustrious Bihzad himself. With this wealth of artistic material at their service, Akbar’s court painters were provided with every facility for a study of the historic and contemporary examples of their art, and that they were encouraged to do so by their royal patron is also recorded.