Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c20.30

c20.30

The Mughal emperor’s sense of vanity was not confined only to his own personal appearance, nor to his desire to be pictured seated in kingly state. It extended farther, and included a very natural pride in his distinguished ancestry. It pleased him to be portrayed not only alone, or surrounded by his officials, but shown in close communion with his forbears, in a group in which he could see himself sitting with all the great men of his family, for several generations. These pictures were really illustrated genealogical trees, so designed as to give the appearance of the whole of its members being alive and gathered together at the same time. Such an incongruity did not trouble the Mughal emperor so long as he knew that he was included in the company of those illustrious ones who had helped to make history. A remarkable example of the kind, and one of the most valuable portrait groups of the period, may be studied in a picture in the British Museum entitled the ‘Princes of the House of Timur’ (Plate LX). It was evidently executed at the order of Akbar by one of the Persian artists at his court, most probably Abdus Samad, as it is very much in his style of work. Moreover, it is painted on cotton cloth, similar to the illustrations of the Amir Hamzah, to the production of which this artist devoted several years of his life. The Mughal emperor occupies a central position in the composition, and seems to be verging on thirty-five years of age; as the picture bears every appearance of being contemporaneous it was therefore most likely painted about 1577. Portraits of Jahangir, Shah Jahan, and some of the later Mughal princes are also included in the group, but a close inspection shows that they are subsequent interpolations. Akbar was an enthusiastic admirer of portraiture, and his lessons in drawing took the form of copying the likenesses of various people, if we are to accept the rather vague story which has been handed down. But when he grew to man's estate his ideas on the subject became very practical, as the following extract from the *A'in* plainly testifies. ‘His Majesty himself sat for his likeness and also ordered to have the likenesses taken of all the grandees of the realm. An immense album was thus formed; those that have passed away have received a new life, and those who are still alive have immortality promised them.’ It is to be regretted that this album has perished, or at least that only fragments of it remain, scattered among various collections, but it is clear from Abu'l Fazl's statement that Akbar's scheme as a whole does not appear far removed from that of a national portrait gallery. Towards this the picture of the ‘House of Timur’ was no doubt a notable contribution. It shows the complete Timurid-Mughal dynasty from the Amir himself down to the Emperor Akbar, with the subsequent additions of Jahangir, Shah Jahan, and Prince Parviz. All are seated and feasting in a beautiful garden, with a throne and canopy in the centre arranged for the accommodation of the most important personages. Such family groups were popular with the Timurids and the Mughals, as Jahangir describes one in his memoirs, received from Persia, which might have been the fellow of the one under description. It was an historic production ‘of the fight of Sāhib Qirān (Timur) with Tuqtamish Khan, and the likenesses of him and his glorious children, and the great Amirs who had the good fortune to be with him in that fight, and near each figure was written whose portrait it was’. And near each person represented in the picture in the British Museum, the name also is written, so that there is no difficulty in identifying every member.