Mughal Painting under Akbar

The painting tradition of the reign of Akbar (r. 1556–1605) 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, 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 founding masters of the tradition, the institutional setting of the imperial kitab khana and the tasvir khana, the synthesis of Persian, Indian, and European styles, the major illustrated manuscripts of the period, the leading artists of the imperial atelier, the European influence on the tradition, and the place of the Akbar-period painting in world art history are treated in detail below.

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

The Mughal painting tradition was founded by 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 in the 1540s. The two painters joined the household of the exiled Mughal prince Humayun in Iran in the 1550s, and they accompanied Humayun on his return to India in 1555. After the accession of Akbar in 1556, Mir Sayyid Ali and Abd us-Samad became the founding masters of the Mughal tradition, and they supervised the early production of the imperial atelier.

Mir Sayyid Ali (active c. 1540s–1580) was one of the most distinguished Persian painters of his generation. 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 Humayun in Iran, and he accompanied Humayun on his return to India. 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; 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 Imperial Kitab Khana at Fatehpur Sikri

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. 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 Synthesis of Persian, Indian, and European Styles

The distinctive characteristic of the Akbar-period painting tradition is the synthesis of Persian, Indian, and European elements. From the Persian tradition, the Mughal painters inherited the conventions of the late Timurid and Safavid painting: the careful composition, the careful draftsmanship, the careful colouring, the use of gold and silver, the elaborate ornamentation, the formal portrait tradition, the muraqqa (album) tradition, the calligraphic tradition, the mashq tradition, and the general aesthetic of the Persianate painting tradition. From the Indian tradition, the Mughal painters inherited the conventions of the Rajput, Pala, and Deccani painting traditions: the more naturalistic treatment of the human figure, the more vivid handling of colour, the use of Indian pigments, the use of Indian paper-making techniques, the use of Indian textile patterns, the use of Indian iconographic conventions, and the use of the wider Indian artistic inheritance. From the European tradition, the Mughal painters inherited the techniques of the Jesuit painters and the European prints and engravings that circulated through the Portuguese and English trading companies: 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, and the wider naturalistic tradition of the European Renaissance and Baroque.

The encounter among these three traditions in the Mughal atelier produced a recognisably new painting tradition by the late sixteenth century. The Persian conventions of careful composition and formal portraiture were combined with the Indian conventions of more vivid colour and more naturalistic figure treatment, and the European conventions of perspective, shading, and individual portraiture were integrated into the synthesis. The result was a painting tradition that was recognisably imperial in its character, with its own distinctive conventions of facial types, of colour, of composition, and of ornament, and that was to become painting traditions of the early modern world.

The Major Illustrated Manuscripts of the Akbar Period

The imperial atelier of the Akbar period produced a remarkable series of illustrated manuscripts, of which the most important are the following:

The Hamzanama (c. 1562–1577)

The Hamzanama (also called the Hamla-i-Haydar-i-Karrar or the Adventures of Hamza) was the first major illustrated manuscript of the Mughal tradition, and it was originally planned as a 1400-page illustrated manuscript of the adventures of Amir Hamza, the uncle of the Prophet Muhammad. The manuscript was begun in the 1560s, and the project was eventually abandoned in favour of a smaller cycle; the only surviving folio from the original project is the Mir Sayyid Ali folio in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The Hamzanama was the most ambitious illustrated project of the period, and the surviving folios (most of which are in the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum) are among the most accomplished works of the early Mughal painting tradition.

The Tutinama (c. 1560)

The Tutinama (“Tales of a Parrot”) is a Persian version of the Indian shukasaptati (the seventy tales of the parrot), and the illustrated manuscript of the Tutinama was produced at the Mughal court in the 1560s under the supervision of Abd us-Samad. The Tutinama illustrations are among the earliest surviving examples of the Mughal painting tradition, and they represent the early phase of the synthesis of Persian and Indian elements.

The Timurnama (c. 1580)

The Timurnama (also called the Tarikh-i-Timuri or the Zafarnama) is a Persian historical account of the life and deeds of Timur, the Central Asian conqueror, and the illustrated manuscript of the Timurnama was produced at Fatehpur Sikri in the 1580s under the supervision of Abd us-Samad. The Timurnama illustrations are among the most accomplished works of the early Akbar-period painting tradition, and they represent the mature phase of the synthesis of Persian and Indian elements.

The Razmnama (c. 1582)

The Razmnama (literally “Book of Wars”) is the Persian translation of the Mahabharata, commissioned by Akbar as part of the imperial translation movement, and the illustrated manuscript of the Razmnama was produced at Fatehpur Sikri in the 1580s. The Razmnama illustrations are among the most ambitious of the Akbar-period illustrated manuscripts, and they represent the mature phase of the synthesis of Persian, Indian, and European elements.

The Babarnama (c. 1589)

The Babar-nama (the memoirs of Babur) was translated into Persian by Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan, and the illustrated manuscript of the Babar-nama was produced at the Mughal court in the 1580s. The Babar-nama illustrations are among the most accomplished works of the late Akbar-period painting tradition.

The Akbarnama (c. 1590s)

The Akbarnama of Abu’l Fazl was illustrated in a celebrated illustrated manuscript produced at the Mughal court in the 1590s. The illustrations of the Akbarnama, of which the Victoria and Albert Museum copy is the most famous, are among the most accomplished works of the late Akbar-period painting tradition, and they represent the mature phase of the synthesis of Persian, Indian, and European elements.

The Iyar-i-Danish (c. 1590s)

The Iyar-i-Danish (“Touchstone of Knowledge”) is a Persian version of the Indian Panchatantra (the animal fables), and the illustrated manuscript of the Iyar-i-Danish was produced at the Mughal court in the 1590s. The Iyar-i-Danish illustrations are among the most accomplished works of the late Akbar-period painting tradition.

The Jami’ al-Tawarikh (c. 1590s)

The Jami’ al-Tawarikh (“Compendium of Chronicles”) of Rashid-ud-din Hamadani, the great Ilkhanid historical compendium, was illustrated at the Mughal court in the 1590s. The Jami’ al-Tawarikh illustrations are among the most accomplished works of the late Akbar-period painting tradition.

The Tutinama and Other Manuscripts

A substantial number of other illustrated manuscripts were produced by the Akbar-period atelier, including further illustrated versions of the Tutinama, the Khamsa of Nizami, the Ramayana, the Harivamsa, the Sakuntala, the Nal-o-Daman, and a long series of other literary, historical, and religious works.

The Leading Artists of the Akbar Period

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. Daswanth 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. Basawan 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. Kesu Das 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 the 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. Farrukh Beg brought with him the more decorative Safavid style of painting, and he contributed to the synthesis of Persian and Indian elements.
Manohar (active c. 1580s–1620s), a Hindu painter who worked in the Akbarnama and the Iyar-i-Danish manuscripts. Manohar was the son of Basawan, and he became one of the leading masters of the later Akbar period and the early Jahangir period.

The European Influence on the Akbar-Period Style

The Akbar period was 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 European influence is most visible in the Akbarnama illustrations, where individual portrait features, chiaroscuro modelling, linear perspective, and European subjects (the Jesuit priests, the European ships of the Portuguese, the European costumes) appear alongside the Indian and Persian elements. The Razmnama illustrations also show substantial European influence, particularly in the rendering of architecture and in the use of perspective. The result of the European influence was a recognisably new style that has been called the “Akbar-period synthesis,” and it stands among the major painting traditions of the early modern world.

The Place of the Akbar-Period Painting in World Art History

The painting tradition of the Akbar period holds a distinctive place in the wider history of world art. The Akbar-period painting is one of the great imperial schools of the early modern period, 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. The Akbar-period painting is distinguished by its synthesis of Persian, Indian, and European elements, by its careful draftsmanship, by its careful colouring, by its careful composition, by its integration of the various elements of the painting, by its monumental character, by its narrative power, and by its historical importance as a major chapter in the history of the painting of the early modern world.

The Akbar-period painting has been the subject of extensive scholarly study, and the illustrated manuscripts of the period — the Hamzanama, the Tutinama, the Timurnama, the Razmnama, the Babar-nama, the Akbarnama, the Iyar-i-Danish, and the various other manuscripts — are among the most thoroughly studied illustrated manuscripts of the early modern world. The principal modern studies of the Akbar-period painting include the works of M. S. Randhawa, John Seyller, Gauvin Bailey, Oleg Grabar, Wheeler Thackston, Ebba Koch, Roger Crill, T. W. Arnold, P. Chandra, Ananda Coomaraswamy, and a substantial body of other modern scholarship. The illustrated manuscripts of the period are now in the major museums and libraries of the world — the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum, the British Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Freer Gallery, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin, the Chester Beatty Library, the National Museum of India, and many other institutions — and they are among the most treasured possessions of the world’s great museum collections.

Sources

Milo Cleveland Beach, The Imperial Image (2012), chs. 1–3.
John Seyller, The Adventures of Hamza: Painting and Storytelling in Mughal India (Azimuth Editions, 2002).

For the broader context of the painting tradition, see the Mughal art and miniature painting page. The painting tradition of the reign of Jahangir, which continued and developed the Akbar-period synthesis, is treated in Mughal painting under Jahangir. The official chronicle of the reign of Akbar, the Akbarnama, is treated in The Akbarnama. The official chronicle of the reign of Shah Jahan, the Padshahnama, is treated in The Padshahnama. The historical context of the reign of Akbar, under which the painting tradition was developed, is treated in greater detail in the entry on Akbar. The literary and linguistic context of the period, including the Persian literary tradition of the court, is treated in the Mughal literature and languages and Persian literature at the Mughal court pages. The translation movement of Akbar’s reign, of which the Razmnama was a major product, is treated in the Mughal culture overview and the Hindu-Muslim relations pages.