Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c11.33

c11.33

The early Mogul miniatures, or those dating from the time of Babar down to Akbar, nearly all exhibit the stiffness and strongly pronounced mannerisms of the contemporary Persian school to which most of them belong. Evidently the fine arts had sunk to a very low condition in Persia under the influence of the Caliphate of Baghdad, and the impulse brought from China in the thirteenth century had not succeeded in raising the standard above the level of conventional manuscript decoration. For the conventionalism of these paintings is that of a degenerate school which has ceased to look for and love the beauty of animate nature, and relapsed instead into a routine of mechanical formality.