Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c18.28.1

c18.28.1

From this general survey of the illustrative art of Akbar’s school of painting, we may now turn to a study of the painters themselves. It must be realized, however, that information with regard to these is distinctly fragmentary; of the majority little more than their names is known, and then only because Akbar’s industrious, but not always reliable, clerical staff wrote them, like labels, on their pictures. Except for Abu’l Fazl’s description of a few of the leading ones, the Mughal painters are very vague personages, articulate only in their art, which on its part tells more of the royal circle around them than of their own individuality. Unlike the artists of almost all other oriental schools, the Chinese or Japanese for instance, no details of their lives have been preserved, no characteristic sayings have been recorded, no anecdotes related, even portraits of them are rare, although they painted likenesses in profusion of those for whom they worked; undescribed and undefined they stand, a shadowy group in the background of the royal drama in which they took such a noteworthy part, never once stepping out into the light. The only member of the school whose career can be traced from beginning to end is the pioneer of the movement, Abdus Samad. Some details of his early years have already been given, but his subsequent progress is interesting.