Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c3.5

c3.5

Against advice, and in spite of the fact that it has been described as an inartistic proceeding, I have included among the illustrations portions of some of the pictures reproduced to a size larger than the originals. My reasons for so doing are that in this way they may be an additional means of enabling the art student to realize with more certainty the manner in which some of these paintings were produced. The original pictures are all miniatures, that is, paintings executed to the smallest possible size for the spectator to view with comfort. Further it is no exaggeration to say that they can only be seen with advantage in the same strong light in which they were painted—the brilliant sun of India. In the course of reproduction, it has been necessary to make almost all of them smaller than the originals in order to conform to the size of the printed page, in a word they are reduced miniatures. It is in an endeavour to correct these various disadvantages that I have allowed a few to appear slightly over the original size. That they have been enlarged without the least loss of effect has supported me in my decision.