Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c19.6

c19.6

If one were asked what was the dominant note of this picture, the answer would most probably be its sense of vitality; it conveys at once a feeling of life and movement, and throbs with energy and emotion. While much of this is the result of the painter's own skill and vision, he was aided not a little in securing it by the particular manner in which he recorded what he saw. A brief analysis of his method of execution will explain. As a whole the composition resolves itself into one of sharply defined colour-contrasts; there is no blending or grading of forms, but it is a combination of flat areas of local colour coming directly into contact with one another. Further, these separate areas of colour are bounded by distinct contours, which, in much of the picture, are emphasized by an outline. Such, broadly, was the general plan on which most of the Mughal miniatures of the period were produced, and as a decorative colour-scheme it has great merit. The Mughal painters were by no means the originators of this method of effect. It is seen in most schools of pictorial art, especially in the beginning, as for instance all European painting up to the time of Titian. The early Flemings employed it, and many, though not all, of the primitive Italians, while of course it was a striking feature in the portraiture of Holbein, notably in his less mature period. The Mughal artist was striving after brilliancy and animation, his subject demanded both, and undoubtedly his method of obtaining what he required was the most ideal one. Such a means has been referred to as a primitive expedient, a convention, and not a natural form of representation; that to detach figures from their surroundings by means of a definite contour is not according to nature. This is no doubt true, but in the hands of the Mughal painter it certainly produced the desired result. The same effect is visible in the applied arts of stained glass and enamel, where the colours are kept separate by metal outlines, and the lustre and vigour of these is their main charm. It cannot be denied that the Mughal artist has caught the essential spirit of his subject, its riot of inspiring colour combined with much sensuousness, the hot oppressive atmosphere heavily laden with scent, the sound of the cymbals and the drums, the singing and clapping of hands.