Mughal Art and Miniature Painting: The Imperial Atelier

The painting tradition of the Mughal court is and influential in the history of Indian art, and it ranks among the great imperial schools of early modern painting alongside the contemporary traditions of Safavid Persia, Ottoman Turkey, Ming and Qing China, the Tokugawa and Edo schools of Japan, and the royal workshops of Renaissance and Baroque Europe. Developed in the imperial kitab khana — the library-atelier established by Humayun and expanded by Akbar into a substantial workshop employing more than a hundred artists — the Mughal style absorbed the inheritance of the late Timurid and Safavid painting traditions of Persia, the indigenous Indian traditions of Rajput, Pala, and Deccani painting, and, particularly under Akbar and Jahangir, the European techniques of the Jesuit painters and the prints that circulated through the Portuguese and English trading companies. The result was a recognisably imperial idiom of refined naturalism, careful attention to facial types, vivid but balanced colour, and the integration of Persian, Indian, and European decorative elements. The major illustrated manuscripts produced under imperial patronage — the Hamzanama, the Razmnama, the Akbarnama, the Babar-nama, the Tutinama, the Iyar-i-Danish, the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, the Padshahnama, and many others — are among the most famous illustrated books of the early modern world, and the single-page paintings of the Jahangir period, with their celebrated depictions of natural history subjects, are among the most accomplished works of the early modern easel tradition. The history of the imperial atelier, the major painters, the principal illustrated manuscripts, the materials and techniques of the workshop, the shift to formal court style under Shah Jahan, and the dispersal of the imperial tradition into the regional courts after Aurangzeb are treated in detail below.

The Imperial Atelier: Kitab Khana and Tasvir Khana

The Mughal painting tradition was institutionalised in the imperial kitab khana — the “book house” or library-atelier — and in the tasvir khana, the painting workshop, which was sometimes treated as a separate section of the larger library establishment. The kitab khana was established by Humayun, who brought back from his exile at the Safavid court in the 1550s two of the most distinguished Persian painters of the period, Mir Sayyid Ali and Abd us-Samad, both of whom had worked in the royal atelier of the Safavid shah Tahmasp. Mir Sayyid Ali and Abd us-Samad became the founding masters of the Mughal tradition, and under their supervision the imperial atelier began the production of a substantial body of illustrated manuscripts in the late 1550s and 1560s. Mir Sayyid Ali subsequently left the Mughal court to work on the illustrated Hamzanama manuscript for the Sultan of Istanbul; the volume he produced is the only extant painting from the dispersed Hamzanama cycle. Abd us-Samad remained at the Mughal court, was made a darogha-i-kitab khana, supervised the production of the Tutinama and the Timurnama manuscripts, and was the leading master of the atelier under Akbar.

Under Akbar, the kitab khana was expanded into a substantial workshop. According to Abu’l Fazl’s Akbarnama, by 1590 the imperial atelier employed more than a hundred painters, calligraphers, illuminators, and binders, and a number of related artisans. The painters of the atelier were organised by rank, the darogha of the kitab khana at the head, the senior masters (ustad) of the workshop, and the apprentices and assistants below. The kitab khana was supplemented by the tasvir khana, the painting workshop proper, and by the karkhana-i-kalam, the production units for pens, brushes, ink, pigments, and paper. The personnel of the kitab khana were largely Muslim, reflecting the inheritance of the Persianate workshop tradition, but the workshop also employed a substantial number of Hindu painters, particularly from the Gujarati, Rajasthani, and Deccani traditions, and the workshop’s principal master from the 1570s onwards was the Hindu painter Daswanth.

The Mughal atelier produced three principal types of painting. Illustrated manuscripts were the largest and most prestigious category, and the workshop produced illustrated versions of the Hamzanama (c. 1562–1577), the Tutinama (c. 1560), the Timurnama (c. 1580), the Razmnama (c. 1582), the Babar-nama (c. 1589), the Akbarnama (c. 1590s), the Iyar-i-Danish (c. 1590s), the Jami’ al-Tawarikh (c. 1590s), and a long series of other historical, literary, and religious works. Muraqqa, or albums, of single-page paintings were assembled during the reigns of Akbar and especially Jahangir; the Muraqqa-i-Gulshan (now dispersed) and the Muraqqa-i-Shah Jahan (in the Metropolitan Museum) are among the most famous surviving examples. Portraits of the emperor, the principal nobles, and the holy men, scholars, and Sufi masters associated with the court were also produced, and the portrait tradition developed strongly under Jahangir.

The Founding Masters: Mir Sayyid Ali and Abd us-Samad

Mir Sayyid Ali (active c. 1540s–1580) was one of the most distinguished Persian painters of his generation and a founding master of the Mughal tradition. He had worked in the royal atelier of the Safavid shah Tahmasp in the 1540s, contributing to the celebrated Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp, the most magnificent illustrated manuscript of the Safavid period. After the dissolution of Tahmasp’s atelier in the 1550s, Mir Sayyid Ali joined the household of the exiled Mughal prince Humayun in Iran, and he accompanied Humayun on his return to India in 1555. He was instrumental in establishing the Mughal painting tradition in the late 1550s, and he supervised the early production of the imperial atelier. In the 1560s, he left the Mughal court to work for the Ottoman Sultan Selim II in Istanbul, where he completed the illustrations for the celebrated Hamzanama manuscript commissioned by Akbar and dispersed during the workshop’s tenure; the only surviving folio from this manuscript is now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The Hamzanama was originally planned as a 1400-page illustrated manuscript, of which perhaps 140–150 folios were produced before the project was abandoned in favour of a smaller cycle; the Mir Sayyid Ali folio is the only surviving painting from the project.

Abd us-Samad (active c. 1540s–1595) was the second founding master of the Mughal tradition. He had also worked in the royal atelier of Shah Tahmasp, contributing to the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp, and he joined Humayun in Iran in the 1550s. After the return to India, he was made a darogha-i-kitab khana of the imperial atelier, and he supervised the production of the Tutinama and the Timurnama manuscripts in the 1560s and 1570s. Abd us-Samad’s distinctive contribution to the Mughal tradition was the development of a more naturalistic treatment of the human figure, a closer attention to facial types, and a more vivid handling of colour than had been characteristic of the Persian tradition. The Timurnama illustrations produced under his direction at Fatehpur Sikri are among the most accomplished works of early Mughal painting.

The Akbar Period: The Imperial Workshop at Fatehpur Sikri

The mature imperial atelier of the Mughal tradition developed at Fatehpur Sikri, the new capital that Akbar built in the 1570s. The workshop produced a remarkable series of illustrated manuscripts during the 1570s and 1580s, including the Tutinama (c. 1560, but continued under Akbar), the Timurnama (c. 1580), the Hamzanama (continued from the 1560s), the Razmnama (c. 1582), the Babar-nama (c. 1589), the Jami’ al-Tawarikh (c. 1590s), the Iyar-i-Danish (c. 1590s), and the Akbarnama (c. 1590s). The workshop also produced a substantial number of single-page paintings, portraits, and natural history studies.

The principal painters of the Akbar-period workshop included:

Mir Sayyid Ali and Abd us-Samad, the founding masters, the former active mainly in the 1560s and the latter throughout Akbar’s reign;
Daswanth (d. 1584), a Hindu painter of great distinction who worked in the Akbarnama and the Razmnama manuscripts; he is sometimes credited with the development of the more naturalistic facial types of the Akbar-period style, and his suicide in 1584 was a major loss to the atelier;
Basawan (active c. 1560–1600), a Hindu painter from Multan and the most important master of the Akbar-period workshop after Daswanth; he is the most prolific single painter of the Akbarnama and the Iyar-i-Danish manuscripts, and his bold compositions, his innovative treatment of the human figure, and his dramatic use of light and shadow are characteristic of the more mature Akbar style;
Kesu Das (active c. 1570s–1590s), a Hindu painter from Gujarat who worked in the Akbarnama and the Iyar-i-Danish manuscripts; he is known for his distinctive treatment of the human figure, his careful draftsmanship, and his sometimes eccentric use of colour;
Miskin (active c. 1590s), a master of the Akbar atelier known for his paintings of battles, animals, and architectural settings;
Lal (active c. 1590s), a painter of Akbar atelier known for his careful attention to detail and his sensitive handling of figure and landscape;
Mukund (active c. 1590s), a painter of the Akbarnama manuscript known for his sensitive treatment of the human figure;
Farrukh Beg (c. 1545–1615), a Persian painter who worked at the Mughal court from c. 1585; he brought with him the more decorative Safavid style of painting;
Kesu Kalan and other masters of the Indian and Hindu traditions who brought indigenous Indian conventions to the workshop.

The Akbar period was also the period of greatest European influence on the Mughal style. Akbar received a series of Jesuit missions at Fatehpur Sikri in the 1580s and 1590s, and the Jesuit painters, particularly the Flemish Jesuit Philippe d’Albastre and others, brought European prints, engravings, and oil paintings to the court. The Mughal painters absorbed elements of European naturalism — the modelling of the figure in chiaroscuro, the use of linear perspective, the treatment of atmospheric distance, the inclusion of individual portrait features, the rendering of European subjects and costumes — into the indigenous Mughal style, and the resulting synthesis is features of the late Akbar-period workshop.

The Jahangir Period: Natural History and the Single-Page Painting

Under Jahangir (r. 1605–1627), the imperial painting tradition shifted decisively from the illustrated manuscript to the single-page painting, the muraqqa or album, and the portrait. The Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, the emperor’s memoirs, contains many of his personal observations on painting and on the painters of the imperial atelier, and the period is the high point of the Mughal painting tradition in terms of technical refinement, individual genius, and the prestige of the painter at court.

The principal painters of the Jahangir-period workshop included:

Abu’l Hasan (c. 1588–c. 1630), the most distinguished painter of the period, who was awarded the title Nadir uz-Zaman (“Wonder of the Age”) by Jahangir; he is known for his sensitive portrait studies, his single-page paintings of court subjects, and his masterpiece Jahangir Embracing Shah Abbas of Persia (now in the Freer Gallery, Washington);
Mansur (active c. 1590s–1630s), the most distinguished natural history painter of the period, who was awarded the title Nadir ul-‘Asr (“Wonder of the Age”) by Jahangir; his paintings of the dodo, of the Siberian crane, of the zebra, of the turkey, of the red-hooded crane, of the Indian rhinoceros, and of the various species of Indian flora and fauna are among the most accomplished natural history paintings of the early modern world;
Bishandas (active c. 1610s–1620s), a painter of portraits and court subjects, sent by Jahangir on the diplomatic mission to the Safavid court of Shah Abbas in 1613;
Muhammad Nadir and Muhammad Murad, painters of the late Jahangir period;
Daulat (active c. 1600s), a painter who worked in the muraqqa tradition.

The Jahangir period saw the production of major illustrated manuscripts including the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri (c. 1620s) and a substantial body of muraqqa paintings, including the Muraqqa-i-Gulshan (now in the Golestan Palace, Tehran) and the Muraqqa-i-Shah Jahan (now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). The Muraqqa-i-Gulshan includes the celebrated double-frontispiece of Jahangir Embracing Shah Abbas of Persia by Abu’l Hasan. The Jahangir period also saw the production of a substantial body of Kohinoor diamond and Taj Mahal subjects, the early portraits of the Padshahnama tradition, and the development of the florid (sarvat-rang) style of the later Jahangir period.

The Shah Jahan Period: Formal Court Style

Under Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1658), the Mughal painting tradition shifted further towards the formal court style. The single-page painting and the muraqqa continued, but the workshop produced a substantial body of formal court subjects: durbar scenes, court receptions, royal hunts, the emperor enthroned, the emperor on the jharokha of the palace, the haj pilgrimages of the imperial household, the formal portraits of the emperor and the principal nobles, and the nazar and khil’at ceremonies. The two celebrated illustrated versions of the Padshahnama — the Padshahnama of Abdul Hamid Lahori and the Padshahnama of Muhammad Waris, the latter now in the Royal Collection at Windsor — are the most ambitious illustrated manuscripts of the period.

The principal painters of the Shah Jahan-period workshop included:

Bichitr (active c. 1620s–1660), a Hindu painter from the Punjab and the most distinguished master of the Shah Jahan atelier; he is known for his sensitive portrait studies, his paintings of court subjects, and his Jahangir Receives Prince Khurram (now in the National Museum, New Delhi);
Balchand (active c. 1630s–1660s), a master of the Padshahnama and other illustrated manuscripts of the period;
Chitra (active c. 1630s–1660s), a painter of the Padshahnama and other illustrated manuscripts of the period;
Anupchhatar (active c. 1640s–1660s), a master of single-page paintings of the Padshahnama tradition;
Mohan Das and Payag (active c. 1630s–1660s), masters of the workshop.

The Shah Jahan period was also the period of greatest refinement in the decorative arts. The pietra dura inlay of the Taj Mahal, the gold and silver work of the imperial karkhanas, the lacquered bindings (dafati) of the imperial library, the calligraphic tradition of the mashq, and the textile production of the imperial karkhanas of Lahore, Ahmedabad, and Burhanpur all reached their peak in this period. The workshop of the imperial kitab khana continued to produce illustrated manuscripts, but the muraqqa and the formal single-page painting dominated the production.

The Dispersal After Aurangzeb

Under Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707), the imperial painting tradition contracted substantially. The emperor, as part of his general retrenchment of imperial patronage, dismissed the principal painters of the imperial atelier, and the kitab khana ceased to be a major producer of illustrated manuscripts. The painters dispersed to the provincial courts of the empire: to the Rajput courts of Rajasthan (particularly the Kachhwaha court of Jaipur, the Rathor court of Jodhpur, and the Sisodia court of Mewar), to the Punjab Hill States of Basohli, Guler, Kangra, Chamba, and Garhwal, to the Deccani courts of Hyderabad, Golconda, and Bijapur, to the nawabi courts of Awadh, Murshidabad, and the Carnatic, and to the Sikh court at Lahore. In each of these regional courts, the Mughal painters developed the local idioms that constitute the wider tradition of Indian miniature painting of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The principal painters who left the imperial atelier after Aurangzeb’s dismissal included the descendants of the Akbar and Jahangir masters, who carried the techniques of the imperial workshop into the regional courts. The Rajput painters of the eighteenth century, particularly the Kachhwaha and the Rathor schools, the Deccani painters of the Hyderabad and Bijapur courts, and the Pahari painters of the Basohli, Guler, and Kangra schools all preserved and developed the Mughal technical and compositional inheritance. The principal illustrated manuscripts of the regional courts, the Ramayana and Mahabharata illustrations of the Rajput schools, the Baramasa and Ragamala paintings of the Pahari schools, the Nayaka and the Bhojpuri paintings of the regional courts, and the Pahari and Rajput portrait tradition all developed in dialogue with the Mughal inheritance.

The Materials and Techniques of the Mughal Atelier

The Mughal painters worked in a highly refined technical tradition. The principal materials of the workshop included:

Paper, generally Indian or Persian handmade paper, sized and burnished with an agate or smooth stone (mohr); the paper was typically of a fine, smooth, and well-sized quality, suitable for the meticulous kalam work of the workshop;
Pigments, including the traditional Indian pigments (lapis lazuli for ultramarine, malachite for green, indigo for blue, ochres and red lead for reds and yellows, lamp black for black, and conch shell for white), the Persian pigments (gold, silver, and various mineral pigments), and the European pigments (vermilion, lead-tin yellow, copper resinate) that entered the workshop through the Jesuit missions;
Brushes, made of squirrel, cat, and other animal hair, set in quill or bamboo handles;
Pens, the qalam, generally made of reed;
Ink, the Indian and Persian siyahi, made of lamp black or carbon black, mixed with gum and binders;
Burnishers of agate or smooth stone for polishing the paper and the painted surface;
Gold and silver leaf, used for the illuminated borders, the highlights, and the ornamentation of the manuscripts.

The Mughal technique was characterised by meticulous preparatory drawing, careful underdrawing, the use of the kalam for the line work, the careful layering of the pigments, the use of fine shading and gradation, the use of fine white highlights, the use of gold for the highlights, the taur (profile) and nim-taur (three-quarter) views of the human figure, the careful treatment of facial types, the use of the bandh (outline) of the figure, the chaun (massing) of the colours, and the nuqta (point) of the highlights. The workshop also developed a sophisticated convention for the rendering of textiles, jewellery, architecture, and landscape, and the integration of the various elements of the painting into a balanced and unified composition was a particular strength of the mature Mughal style.

Sources

Milo Cleveland Beach, The Imperial Image: Paintings for the Mughal Court (Mapin, 2012).
Gulru Necipoglu, The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire (Reaktion Books, 2005) for comparative material.

For the broader context of Mughal cultural life, see the Mughal culture overview. The literary and historical writings of the imperial court, which were often illustrated in the workshop, are treated on the Mughal literature and languages page. The imperial architecture of the period, including the buildings that housed the atelier, is treated on the Mughal architecture overview. The court culture that patronised the workshop is examined in the entries on Akbar, under whose reign the workshop was developed, and on Shah Jahan, whose court produced the Padshahnama. The dispersal of the imperial tradition under Aurangzeb and the rise of the regional courts is treated on the decline of the Mughal Empire page. The textile and costume traditions that provided the materials and patterns used by the painters are examined on the Mughal costumes and personal adornment page.