Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c21.27

c21.27

During the reign of Aurangzeb it is doubtful whether the importation of European pictures into the Mughal’s dominions was maintained in view of the antipathy that this ruler is credited with having displayed towards art generally. Nevertheless the influence of a foreign style is seen in the miniatures painted while he was on the throne, as may be observed in Plate XXX. In other parts of the country evidences of Portuguese artists being employed in decorating palaces with mural paintings are not wanting, as is proved by those on the walls at the Athār Mahal in Bijapur, much of the character of which is apparently European, although of a distinctly inferior quality. On the break-up of the Mughal court at Delhi, and the transfer of power to Lucknow and Hyderabad, the Mughal school, as we have seen, went to pieces, with the results that many examples LXVIII. Picture in the Patna *qalam*; subject unknown; painted *c.* A.D. 1800 Indian Museum, Calcutta, No. 218.