Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c20.61.3

c20.61.3

In the first place it rarely fails to carry conviction in its drawing, and to give the impression of being a truthful likeness. To make sure of this the artist went about his work in a very thorough manner. He made small ‘thumb nail’ sketches of his sitter in black and white, either while this person sat before him, or as he went about his duties. Abu’l Fazl states distinctly that Akbar sat for his likeness, and the pictures themselves bear evidence of having been drawn from life, not ‘visualized’, as some have maintained. It seems not improbable that the court artist did his work in a manner similar to the scribe who is depicted taking his notes, at the bottom of the picture reproduced in the frontispiece, except that the one used the reed pen and the other the squirrel-hair brush. The court painter would be present on such occasions with his sketchbook to record the portraits of all and sundry who were at the durbar. His sketches for portraiture usually show the head only finished, the shape and position of the body being indicated by a few suggestive lines. Many of these preliminary studies have come down to us, and a few of them are illustrated on Plate LXV. In no sense are they rough or careless impressions, done on the chance of catching the likeness, but in all cases they are careful studies, accurate and detailed in every respect, and forming perfect working drawings from which the finished miniatures were painted.