Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c15.21

c15.21

That Jahangir himself had no small opinion of his own proficiency in this subject, especially of his knowledge of the individual mannerisms of the different artists, whether ancient or contemporary, is clear from the following somewhat startling pronouncement. ‘As regards myself,’ he boasts, ‘my liking for painting and my practice in judging it have arrived at such a point that when any work is brought to me, either of deceased artists or those of the present day, without the names being told me, I say on the spur of the moment that it is the work of such and such a man. And if there be a picture containing many portraits, and each face be the work of a different master, I can discover which face is the work of each of them. If any other person has put in the eye and eyebrow of a face; I can perceive whose work the original face is, and who has painted the eyes and eyebrow.’ It will at once occur to the reader that the emperor’s decisions were certainly never doubted, but apart from this the reference contains some useful information, especially regarding the custom of employing several artists on one miniature, a matter of technique which will be discussed in due course. Allowing also for oriental hyperbole it certainly describes Jahangir as something more than a close observer of each artist’s method of work. His statement was not, however, intended to be taken as a literal fact, but was introduced into his memoirs in this emphatic form to make it quite clear to his audience that his knowledge of painting was not that of a mere dilettante, but that of an experienced connoisseur. It seems probable that something between these two would be nearer the mark. In any case Jahangir’s acquaintance with the classical aspects of the art of miniature painting, and particularly his activities in acquiring examples of the best schools to place before his artists, were some of the principal means by which the work of his reign was raised to its high standard of excellence. We have seen that one source from which the painters drew their inspiration was the collection of illuminated manuscripts contained in the imperial library. These, like the pictures in a modern art gallery, were studied by the Indian artists and formed the basis of their style. But not all these illustrations were of equal merit. The decay of Persian art had already set in, and any contemporary paintings which found their way from that country into the hands of the Mughal craftsmen were not likely to influence them for good. Some copies of these by the hands of Indian artists have been preserved, and show how they were occasionally misled in this respect. What was needed at this particular juncture was an authority to provide that sense of artistic discrimination which would distinguish the good from the inferior. Akbar had lacked the requisite knowledge, his investigations had been limited by the deficiencies in his education, although intuition might have helped him much. He appears to have left the artists, when once started on their career, very much to their own devices, to rise or fall by their own individual selection of models. The pictures of his reign are proof of this, and show that the painters were groping about in the mists of uncertainty, with no one to guide them on their way. But when Jahangir became emperor and patron, with the school under his control, all this was changed. He was an antiquarian with an artist's eye, and out of the well-spring of his knowledge he supplied this missing quality, using it with rare judgement, as the art of his time bears eloquent testimony.