A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c20.s1.58

c20.s1.58

Wall-paintings, doubtless executed for the most part as 'Indian fresco' in the manner described in Chapter VIII (*ante*, p. 277), constituted the third branch of Indo-Persian pictorial art, and are known to have been numerous on the imperial residences. As might be expected, few specimens have survived the destruction and neglect from which the Mughal palaces have suffered so severely. The best preserved examples are those which decorated two buildings at Fathpur-Sīkrī near Agra, namely, Akbar's bedroom and the residence of his Hindu queen, who bore the title of 'Mariam-uz-zamān', the 'Mary of the Age'. Even these pictures, many of which were in tolerably good condition forty or fifty years ago, are now mere fragments, measures of conservation having been deferred too long. The remains are fully described and illustrated in the first volume of the late Mr. E. W. Smith's elaborate work on Akbar's palace-city.