Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c20.5

c20.5

This is the art that was carried westward when the Mongol hordes travelled in that direction, and Chinese portrait painters, brought in their train, became established in the cities of Persia. A few paintings by these experts, with later copies which show their style, have been handed down to us and help to explain what was taking place. But Persia had its own traditions for portraiture, as there is abundant testimony. Early in the tenth century Mas‘udi, the Persian historian, describes a manuscript wherein figured the portraits of all the Sasanian kings, following a tradition preserved long after that dynasty had passed away.² It was, however, in the ancient literature of Persia, and also of India, that the portrait played the most popular part. The useful gift of being able to produce at the right moment a lifelike picture of the hero or heroine, thus solving all difficulties, forms the climax of several of the classical stories of both countries. In Persian legend it may be seen in Nizami’s *Khusrau and Shirin*, which itself was founded on the old Sasanian story of Shah Khusrau Parwiz (Chosroes Parvez) and his love affairs with the princess Shirin of Armenia. The young prince had an artist friend, Shapur, who dazzles Khusrau with his description of the beauty of Shirin, so that he falls in love with her. Shapur then acts as an intermediary bringing her a portrait of Khusrau, and the Persian artists were never tired of painting pictures of the lady seated in a bower gazing at the precious miniature of her beloved. Other pictures sometimes include scenes wherein we see portraits painted on rocks or hanging on panels suspended from trees, which works of art have an important bearing on the subject of the story illustrated. But while the use of portraiture in their stories was not uncommon with Persian writers, in Indian literature it was even more frequently employed, generally with very telling effect. There is a world-old tradition, supposed to allude to the origin of painting in India, relating how Brahma instructed a king how to bring back from the grave the dead son of a Brahman, by painting a portrait of Night Scene; priests in council; painted *c.* A.D. 1640 Indian Museum, Calcutta, No. 13031; size 8½" × 6½".