Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c21.14

c21.14

While Akbar showed a decided proclivity for European pictures, his son was even more interested, and when he became emperor soon appears to have developed into a whole-hearted admirer of all forms of occidental art. As a young man Jahangir was attracted by the pictures brought by the Jesuit missions, and seems to have made friends with its members on that account. In 1602 it is related that he wore around his neck a locket containing miniatures of Jesus and the Virgin, and to have displayed even a greater desire for objects of a similar nature than his father. Three years afterwards when he ascended the throne he was able to indulge his appetite for European art to an unlimited extent. At first he had to be content with religious pictures only, as these were brought in considerable numbers when the Portuguese priests found that their work of proselytism was facilitated by such means. But the arrival of the English embassy in 1615, which opened up an entirely new avenue, eventually led to a large quantity of secular painting making its appearance at the Mughal court. As we have seen, a few pictures of the kind had already been acquired by Akbar, and were more afterwards obtained. At Daulat Bagh or the ‘ Garden of Splendour ’, which Jahangir had built on the Ana Sagar lake, Roe, the English ambassador, saw ‘ roomes which were Paynted with Antique, and in some Panes Copyes of the French kings, and other Christian Princes ’.¹ The Mughal emperor’s liking for pictures was not lost on the astute English diplomat, who soon saw that a supply of works of art in the form of presents might expedite his schemes. Accordingly in 1615 we find him writing home for, among other things suitable as gifts to the emperor, ‘ pictures, lardge, on cloth, the frames in peeces ; but they must be good, and for varyetye some story, with many faces ’. Again in the same year he asks his directors for ‘ pictures, they comming out of Italy ouerland and from Ormus ’. Early in 1617 a consignment of miscellaneous articles for presentation to the emperor arrived, and the cases were opened at a durbar held for the occasion. When the pictures were taken out, and displayed, even the accomplished and ready-witted Roe found himself embarrassed upon being asked on the spur of the moment to explain to the oriental spectators the meaning of some of these, especially one entitled ‘Venus and a Satyre’. Accompanying it were several paintings of allegorical subjects, including one mysteriously described as ‘expressing our government’, which shows that ‘publicity’ was aimed at even in those days, although with little thought of the difficulties in which such a peculiar commission placed the unfortunate artist. In spite of the fact that the majority of the pictures were very little understood at the court, Roe continued to have large oil paintings sent out as ‘fitt presentes’ to the Mughal emperor. He writes again that ‘pictuers of all sortes, if good, (are) in constant request; some large storie; Diana this yere gave great content’. Portraiture was also included in some of the consignments, one of which consisted of a selection of English royalties and notabilities of the time, and included ‘the king my Soueraignes Picture, the Queenes, my Lady Elizabeths, Sir Thomas Smiths and some others’. A few of these travelled about with the emperor, being always given a prominent place in his council chamber, and two of them may be identified occupying panels on the wall behind Jahangir’s throne in the picture reproduced in the frontispiece. The court artists were also commissioned to make small copies of these, thus converting them into Indian miniatures, as may be seen in the portrait of Queen Elizabeth in the Bodleian Library O. A. 171 b, 17 v. To make his copy more presentable the Mughal artist has painted the queen as if standing at an Indian window, and the quilted screen (kanāt) had been rolled up so as to form part of the frame.