Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c11.71

c11.71

One interesting fact brought out by these paintings is that they were frequently drawn by one artist and painted by another. Possibly Akbar, who loved to regulate the smallest details of his Court, introduced this rather inartistic division of labour, which may account for the curious, confused style of some of the paintings. There had been for many centuries in China and Japan a real division in art-practice between outline-work and painting; but to employ an outline artist and a painter to work together on the same picture seems to have been an innovation. The practice is also referred to by Jahangir in his memoirs, but it was not apparently long continued by the Mogul artists.