A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c20.s1.72

c20.s1.72

The practice of beginning a picture by laying down a firmly-drawn outline led to a curious division of labour, the outline often being drawn by one man and the painting done by another. For example, in the Clarke MS. of the *Akbarnāmah* at South Kensington the picture (No. 89/117) of the execution of Adham Khān was drawn by Miskīn and painted by Shankar. Sometimes three artists collaborated in one work, and I have noticed one instance in which the collaborators numbered four, namely, the audience scene (1/117) in the Clarke MS. The outlines in that picture were drawn by Miskīn, the painting was done by Sarwan, the faces (*chihra-nāmī*) by an artist whose name is indistinct, and the figures (*ṣūrat*) by Mādho. It is not clear how such a complicated arrangement was worked. The method, whether only two artists or four collaborated, necessarily tended to reduce their art to the level of a skilled mechanical craft; and, as a matter of fact, the mechanical nature of much of the fine Indo-Persian work is its greatest defect.⁵