MUGHAL PAINTINGS: Art & Stories

The mighty Persian warrior Rustam, the Israelite prophets Joseph, Moses, and Elijah, the Christian Messiah, the Mughal emperors Babur, Humayun, and Akbar and the women of the harem, Mughal paintings tell the stories of these figures from epic poetry, holy texts, and the real-life history of the Mughals, one of the greatest empires of the early modern period. The Mughal Empire was established in 1526 when the Babur, a Turko-Mongol ruler from Central Asia, defeated Ibrahim Lodi, the last ruler of the Delhi sultanate. In the centuries that followed the Mughals enjoyed economic success and religious harmony across the Indian subcontinent and supplied much of Europe and America with its spices, textiles, jewels and other luxury goods. Illustrated here in spectacular detail are 95 works from India's major Islamic courts from the Benkain Collection. Ornately dressed but bare breasted, a woman smokes from a hookah pipe, her maid in attendance; gory with blood Alam Shah is pictured cleaving asunder the chain of the wheel in a brutal battle scene with animals and men drowning in flood waters; there are scenes from history, Akbar supervising the capture of wild elephants in 1564, Mughal princes, lovers parting, characters in the wilderness with animals, a female figure holding a four-stringed khuuchir and a lotus, a manuscript with pictorial borders showing everyday scenes of people, a Harem night-bathing scene from 1630 on page 235, elephants fighting in a courtyard, opium smokers served melon and bread, and images of Persian epic heroes and prophets and Christ. Captured in this unique art form, Mughal paintings blend Persian and Indian themes and styles, along with Central Asian and European elements. The results are works of great beauty: intense, delicate, detailed, colourful, sensual, luxurious, and unique. The provenance, publication history, and technical information of each manuscript painting is also accompanied by full transcriptions of Persian and Arabic calligraphy. Paperback, 368 pages, fully illus with superb colour reproductions, 24.13 x 27.94 cm.
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