Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c15.3

c15.3

WITH the death of Akbar a critical period arrived in the development of the art of miniature painting under the Mughals. Although much had been accomplished, much still remained to be done before this method of painting could be said to have been firmly established in its new environment. His had been the mind to conceive the idea of the school, and his to put it into effect. He had brought together the personnel and material for its maintenance, placing it judiciously under the control of experts. Examples of the approved style of painting had been acquired for the guidance of the Indian craftsmen, books had been selected suitable for illustration with their pictures, portraiture had been encouraged by the institution of a national album, and the whole movement thoroughly organized, so that its foundations were well and truly laid. But when this point had been reached, before its various elements had properly crystallized, its royal patron passed away, and the fate of the school lay in the balance. Had Akbar’s successor been only moderately interested in the subject, it is more than probable that sooner or later it would have sunk back into its original condition, and left no record of its existence in the annals of the Mughals. For the art of miniature painting was of such a character, and at such a stage in its development that it could only thrive on the personal enthusiasm of the ruling prince—without this support it would of necessity languish and die. It is unusual to find that subjects of this nature, after occupying the thoughts of one monarch, receive the same serious attention from his successor; but fortunately for Mughal painting the exception may be recorded. In Akbar’s son, Jahangir, the Indian painters found a friend whose interest in their work was so ardent as to be almost unprecedented in the history of art patronage. Under his liberal and discerning encouragement the school received a fresh impetus, the initial difficulties in its evolution were speedily overcome, and the pictures, uneven and crude at first, gradually improved in quality until they assumed a definite style. Much of the character of this style was brought about by the practical foundations devised by the far-sighted Akbar, but its consummation was undoubtedly due to the cultivated supervision of his aesthetic son. To adapt a metaphor, old even in Mughal times, which expresses in a few words the share that each of these two monarchs took in bringing the school into being—Akbar laid the egg and Jahangir hatched it.