Description
The Mughal art is a combination oi the Indo-Persian style which developed in India. It was influenced liberally by the existing Indian Rajput school. The Mughal school was found by Akbar under whom it developed into a class of its own. It was essentially a product of the Mughal court. In form and content, it happens to be a departure from collective community tradition just as the Mauryan art was more than a millennium and a half before. Though it is not difficult for a discerning pair of eyes, to distinguish an Akbari from a Jahangir one or the latter from a Shah Jahan painting, but the interesting and most significant factor is the strong common denominator which is constant in form and style from earlier and later ones as well as from those others of contemporary times which originated elsewhere than in the Mughal court. Mughal artists due to new and more sophisticated techniques, learned both from Persian and European traditions. Pigments too contributed significantly to the distinctiveness of a style, fricontrast to pre-Mughal paintings, those of the Mughal and Rajput school reflect an enormous increase in the range of colors. Portraiture occupied very important position in the Mughal painting. A large number of portraits of the Mughal emperors and the nobilities were executed during the Mughal period. Akbar was the first Mughal monarch who took a deep interest in the promotion of painting and following the Mongol and Timurid examples, he commissioned the work of illustrating numerous manuscripts. Mughal Library