Skies in early Mughal painting

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Skies in Early Mughal Painting

Bv Janice Rose rjjLurie J B.S.

(Northwestern University) 1951

THESIS

Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in History of Art

in the GRADUATE DIVISION of the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

DFCREE CONFERRED DECEMBER 8.1979

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ......................................

P-1

T e x t .............................................. p .

4

F o o t n o t e s ......................................... p. 35 Bibliography....................................... p. 38 List of P l a t e s ..................................... p. 39 P l a t e s ..............................................p. 44

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INTRODUCTION In 1556, at the age of thirteen, Akbar came to the throne of India, already a precocious veteran of his father's military campaigns.

His father and grandfather,

Humayun and Babur, had alternately conquered and lost con­ trol of areas of northern India.

Akbar enlarged and

secured the empire that remained under Mughal domination for three hundred years.

A descendant of Timur and

Jenghiz Khan, he inherited an appreciation for poetry and literature, as well as the elegant books that were treas­ ured in the cultivated courts of his nomadic relatives. Wall-hung paintings were unsuited to nomadic tents, but illustrated books were easily portable treasures that played an important role in the intellectual life of the Mughals.

Calligraphy, in which the books were transcribed,

was considered so great an art as to possess almost mag­ ical qualities;^" similarly, the small paintings used by the Mughals to illustrate their books were a source of delight.

Akbar was probably the only member of his highly

literate family unable to read.

For him these illustra­

tive paintings must have been especially prized. Humayun had brought to Delhi from the court of the Safavid ruler Shah Tahmasp two of Persia's greatest painters, Mir Sayyid Ali and Kwaja Abdus Samad.

They

the directors of Akbar's painting atelier which also included a number of skilled Indian painters, other Persian artists who emmigrated to India after Shah Tahmasp

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ended his patronage of painting, and a number of lesser Indian painters who came to be trained.

Akbar's strong

intellectual curiosity and religious and cultural toler­ ance probably encouraged the development of similar quali­ ties in his painters, so that his atelier was an ideal place for learning, experimentation and invention.

We

learn from Akbar's chronicler, Abul Fazl, that rewards, both of esteem and material payment, were given personally by Akbar to painters "according to the excellence of workmanship displayed".

2

This encouraged the development of

painting generally and the individual genius of men such as Basawan, one of Akbar's greatest painters. The paintings that were made for the Mughals in the early years of Akbar's reign (1556-1605) show a remark­ able divergence from traditional Indian and Persian works. Though leaning heavily on Indian and Persian models as well as incorporating influences from European art, the work of Akbar's artists was characterized by a new naturalism and an exuberant energy.

This bent toward

naturalism frequently appears in the treatment of nature and represents a dramatic departure from the traditional use of highly stylized symbolic and decorative images.

Many innovative artists turned from fixed, gen­

eralized conceptual images to individualized representa­ tions based upon direct observation.

Others, less bold

or able, but wishing to achieve the "new" effects in paint­ ing, copied the innovators or their teachers rather than working directly from nature.

A study of certain known Original from

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3

major works from the early Akbari period illustrates the striking changes that artists made in their paintings of the sky, outdoor space, the effects of natural light, and certain landscape elements.

This paper will discuss

these changes with emphasis on the sky, as well as partic­ ular local and foreign influences.

Such diverse sources

may have determined the painters' attitudes and choices, and correspond to the remarkably wide dissimilarities in the artists' solutions to the problem of creating a setting for the action in their paintings.

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Basawan and the Tuti-nama (c. 1570)

One of the most innovative and painterly depictions of the sky in early Mughal painting, is folio 35r of the Cleveland Museum Tuti-nama ascribed to the painter 3 Basawan (PI. 1). Here a hunter has climbed up into a mango tree to capture a mother parrot in his net.

The

rich green leaves of the mango are painted in broad curved brush strokes suggesting the natural growth, volume and density of luxuriant foliage.

Heavy black

strokes on the sides and base of the tree trunk describe the texture and character of the bark and contrast with the gauzy softness of the hunter's nets that rest deli­ cately on slender sticks and billow softly about the captured birds.

Pale accents highlight the heavy columnar

form of the trunk of the tree supporting the active figure of the hunter.

His lively face, engrossed in his

catch, captures the viewer, forming the main focus of the painting. To the left a small stream flows diagonally into the background continued by a diagonal line of smaller trees with twisting branches of feathery, softly brushed foliage. This recession emphasizes the foreground placement of the main tree and makes a near middle ground niche for a sly furry fox, the individual hairs of his coat delicately stroked on, who watches attentively.

Tiny flowers, leaves

and grasses at the bottom edge of the painting serve as repoussoir, reinforcing the convincingly rendered recession.

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Dark greens and glowing purples describe the shadowy ground beneath the trees.

Above a low horizon on the right

of the painting, seen in back of and below the full branches of the mango tree is a patch of sky composed of melting pale pinks and blues.

These are brushed on in a painterly manner,

suggesting the effects of light and atmosphere in a sunset sky.

A small bit of sky appears at the top left center inte­

grating the sky elements into the total unity of the painting. The pale glowing pinks of the sky seem to be reflected in the highlights on the mango leaves.

A triangular movement from

the drooping gauze net on the ground, up to the draped figure of the hunter and the captured birds in the billowing net, then down to the furry fox, neatly underscores the narrative and draws attention to the rich variety of textures.

The

broad leafed and the feathery trees, the palpably atmospheric sky, all present their own character.

The work is unified by

a naturalistic approach in all its parts. The freshness of Basawan's painting of the sky is clear by comparison to contemporary Persian and purely Indian painting (Pis. 2 and 3).

Although the two styles are different

from each other, in each the sky, clouds and landscape general­ ly are presented with no reference to their real detail or character.

They are seen solely as formal elements, used to

reinforce the decorative or emotional intent of the painting. The picture plane is flat, space exists only two dimensional­ ly: as a flat decorative carpet, or as an intense solid block of color.

Although only a fraction of the 218 painted

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miniatures in the Cleveland Tuti-nama are of a quality

comparable to the Basawan, this early manuscript does provide insights into the artistic problems, the process of change, and the training of the painters during Akbar's early reign. It is possible that the Cleveland Tuti-nama, an illus­ trated collection of fanciful Indian tales translated into Persian, was not originally organized and painted in the royal workshops, for the artistic level of many of the pages is rather poor.

The presence of pages ascribed to

Basawan, Dasavanta, Lai and Tara, Akbar's artists noted with 4 special praise by Abul Fazl himself, lead one to believe that it did at some point come to Akbar's atelier.

Its

unevenness is disappointing, but it catalogues the many stylistic tendencies of the time, revealing broad differ­ ences in background, and creative and technical skills of those artists who worked together and created a new Mughal style. There are about 135 paintings in the Cleveland Tuti-nama depicting the sky.

About one fourth of these

skies have a more or less realistic appearance, but the artistic effects vary enormously. The anonymous Tuti-nama folio 168v,^ Habbaza meeting Bashir under a tree, is an example in which the painter is working to achieve a sense of three dimensional outdoor space (PI. 4).

Departing from convention, the artist has

individualized the figures and set up relationships between them with gestures and facial expressions.

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sharply curving line and exaggerated angles of the Chaurapanchasika type of female figure are softened and humanized to a more natural form.

Combining two scenes he

places the meeting in the background, and an encampment of overlapping tents in the foreground to emphasize recession. The drapery of the tents is shaded to show volume, and they are depicted without enough patterning to obscure the effect of depth.^

The scale of the figure is inconsistent,

the less important foreground figures are smaller than those in the back.

The figure in green at the upper right

is, however, correctly proportioned in relation to Habbaza and Bashir.

The pale yellow color of the back­

ground recedes against the strong purple middle ground hill that partially obscures the roots of the large back­ ground tree thus accentuating the recession of the back­ ground scene.

The sky, the only disparate element, is

solid intense bright blue.

There is no attempt to give

it an atmospheric character or push it back in space; in fact, it leaps forward.

Perhaps the artist saw this as

a way to unify the painting, for the upper and lower sections are unconnected except for the strong blue sky, which sets up a complimentary balance and diagonal move­ ment with the red tent top in the opposite lower right c o m e r , and the large figure in green placed spanning the upper and lower scenes.

Struggling with new artistic ideas,

the artist seems to have contented himself with an archaic sky in order to work out what were for him more important Original from

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Another approach to painting the sky is seen in folio 32r, the parrot mother cautioning her young on the danger of playing with foxes (PI. 5), which is attributed by Chandra and Lee to Dasavanta.

Accepting Chandra's and

Lee's attribution, it seems possible that an artist with the obvious budding talent that Dasavanta was said to have had when he was discovered would be placed in a position to learn from a master such as Basawan.

Painting in the

same manuscript and a similar subject, Dasawanta probably saw and studied folio 35r,^ and, impressed with its liveli­ ness, coherence and ingenuity, he might well have used it as a model. is striking.

The similarity in composition to Basawan's folio Dasawanta tries to achieve the same pictorial

space and succeeds to some extent, but with less sureness and freedom he restricts his forms.

Thus the central tree

whose type, shape, and placement are like Basawan's becomes tighter, less exuberant, more regular and less volumetric. Two middle-ground trees on the left, one crossing over the other, echo Basawan's placement almost exactly and present a similar comparison.

Dasavanta blurs the division between

land and sky just as Basawan had, and, in keeping with the character of Basawan's sky, has softened his sky with hazy clouds.

Dasavanta's sky is larger, that is, we see more of

it because his tree is less expansive than that of the exub­ erant Basawan who can control his composition even as its parts seem to burst beyond its borders. The mother fox occupies almost the same spot in both paintings.

Dasavanta has carefully modeled the animal and Original from

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placed her in an interesting pose in relation to her kit, but the other young are sharply silhouetted against the ground, less modeled, and recall the floating flat figures of Safavid painting.

The juxtaposition of the kits with

the baby parrots, the attentive glance, sharp teeth and scarlet tongue of the mother cleverly point up the narrative, although the artist had yet to achieve Basawan's mastery in depicting space and volumetric form.

The representation of

an illusionistic sky seems to be a prime concern of Dasavanta in this painting, but he abandoned it for a flat gold surface on the verso side of the folio.

This suggests

that the artist's primary concern was a lively, well organ­ ized depiction of the narrative that would involve the viewer, stirring the imagination and emotions, and an immediate space for the narrative action to take place. In order to achieve this, he uses perspective, modeling, angled juxtaposition of figures, expressions.

I feel it is

gestures and to say that naturalistic

depiction of the sky was not in itself an important goal for early Akbari painters.

If it did not detract from

the main interest of their compositions, or if it could be used to enhance or add interest, it was a useful de­ vice.

But it could be and often was eliminated and

archaic conventions were used i Thus, painters sometimes did observe the sky and the effects of natural light on the landscape, and for a brief period experimented with putting down what they observed in a few freely brushed paintings filled with Digitized by

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light and air.

Basawan achieved this not only in folio

35r, but also in folio 207r (PI. 6), using an almost im­ pressionistic rhythmic play of broad brushstrokes. Another Tuti-nama painting, folio 212v, Khursid dur­ ing a storm at sea, (PI. l)t is remarkable for its depiction of the sky and airy outdoor space though not as freely and broadly painted as those above.

The artist has concentra­

ted on a central scene of a group of highly individualized figures in a ship at sea.

He has had some difficulty in

proportioning the figures to each other and to the ship, but has assembled a richly varied assortment of types, costumes, and expressive faces and postures.

The faces,

shown from many angles, have been carefully and delicately shaded as have the draped fabrics of the garments and sail to show volume and movement.

The stiffly silhouetted

female figure is reminiscent of Chaurapanchasika style, but is distinguished by the softly and sensitively modeled face.

Heavily outlined and shaded background landscape

rocks are contrasted against a stormy, cloud-streaked sky which sets off the full white sail.

The ship is seen in

perspective, its architecture rendered in fine and convin­ cing detail although the scale of the mast and the figure on it is oddly disproportionate to the whole.

This is one

of the frequent passages in Mughal painting that appear to be lifted from a European source and, as it were, quoted out of context.

The turbulent water is so stylized that

its swirls and eddies almost seem to have been transformed into zoomorphic creatures. Digitized by

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figures does it take on a more observed appearance.

The

illusionistic stormy sky is vital to the total expressive effect of this exciting scene.

8

These few paintings illustrate tendencies of the Tuti-nama as a whole.

The styles are tentative; the

painters, with a few exceptions, are unsure, but most are escaping from the hold of tradition, learning to paint what the eye has observed, or to copy someone else's observations, in order to make pictures of particular people in particular circumstances, to capture the viewer's close attention, and to arouse a variety of specific emotions.

The treatment of the sky can be effective in

this process.

And the bold exploration of new expressive

means could in some hands produce exciting small master­ pieces that might well meet with the approval and admira­ tion of the royal patron.

The Hamza-nama (c. 1562-1577) At the same time it was possible for Akbar's artist's to pursue an artistic idea that, although it might suc­ ceed in a particular painting or paintings, would be drop­ ped from the Mughal repetoire because it did not function well in general for another particular work.

Paintings

from the Hamza-nama (c. 1562-1577) illustrate this process. The Hamza-nama, a legendary history of the adventures of Hamza, the Islamic hero and uncle of the Prophet, was the most ambitious undertaking of Akbar's painting workshop.

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It was painted under the direction of Mir Sayyid Ali and Kwaja Abdus Samad, and included 1400 individual paintings.

Only a fraction of them survive today.

The

quality of the painting and the finish is consistently high, and it must have consumed the major energies of the atelier during the years of its production. An inspection of 61 of the 120 or so surviving pictures shows the sky to be represented in about half.

o

It

usually occupies a small area above a high horizon and is often half obscured by foliage, figures, or buildings. In about 18 of these paintings there is some suggestion of naturalism in the representation of the sky.

Most

use a convention of short, uneven, broad horizontal brush storkes of shaded white against a bright blue ground to indicate a cloud-strewn sky.

This technique produces

an effect that is neither very illusionistic nor much in character with the richness and sleek finish of the work as a whole.

We can see this in Hamza-nama folio 23 (PI. 8).

In folio 46 (PI. 9) a similar horizon of patterned kiosks, domes, and towers set atop city and palace walls appears to far better advantage against a solid bright blue sky. The Hamza-nama paintings are so full of rich color, surface pattern, strong outline and sharp details that they deny most attempts to show spatial recession in spite of the use of architectural perspective, diminution, and overlapping figures.

Perhaps because of its flattening

effect on an already fairly flat picture plane, some painters tried to soften the solid blue sky.

The painter

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of folio 6 (PI. 10) has achieved this with more subtle means than we see in folio 23.

Here again we see high on

the picture plane a wall with fancifully patterned domes and towers against an azure sky; but just above them at the top edge of the painting are several softly smudged streaks of cloud.

The effect is not intrusive as in

folio 23; rather, it has the illusionistic and welcome effect of bringing some space and atmosphere into the painting. The painter of folio 25 (PI. 11) also achieves a subtle atmospheric effect by placing one or two soft, curling, windblown wisps of cloud in a high, otherwise solid blue sky.

The same wind, felt in the clouds unfurls

the horsemen's bright banners set against the sky, inte­ grating the sky and the action. Folio 54, Mihrdukht's escape from the four suitors, (PI. 12), shows the four suitors dashing off across the page, gesturing wildly, tunics and sashes flying, the costumes brilliant against the undulating pastel ground, as Mirdukht and the boatman make off over the turbulent waters in the other direction.

The pale grey-blue color

of the sky keeps it in the background, while delicately shaded striations of slightly darker blue give depth to the sky and softly echo the active surface.

This is an­

other of the few instances where the sky accords well with the whole character of the work. The horizons in these pictures are usually high so

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that the sky area is small and relatively unimportant. There are two Hamza-nama pictures, however, in which, be­ cause of the narrative content, the artist must have con­ sidered more carefully how he would represent the sky. Folio 58, representing Amir placed on a hermit's pillar, is one (PI. 13).

In order to emphasize Amir's predica­

ment, the tall pillar on which he is placed is shown against a vast cloud filled sky opposite the mountain top where the sun priest performs his ritual.

From the top

right c o m e r shines a sun painted in the Persian conven­ tion, a quarter of a hard edged circle of gold, with golden rays projecting from the perimeter and contrasted against dark blue.

If the painter had continued in the

conventional Persian manner and substituted a solid blue background for the softly shaded horizontal layers of white clouds, he would have lost the dramatic impact of the illusion of great space in which Amir finds himself. The vertical forms of the mountain are shaded to give it physical substance and the mountain overlaps trees on either side, further suggesting its position in space. The main concern is dramatic presentation, because an atmospheric sky provides a more dramatic and empathetic view of Amir's situation, the artist has made one. Folio 38 (PI. 14), Zumurrud Shah, with his army, fly­ ing through the air on jugs, is the other painting that required a striking environment in order to present the particular episode dramatically.

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Zumurrud Shah's large

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figure, seated on his jar, floats high on the page in an attitude of flight, supported and surrounded by a surge of billowing clouds.

The painter seems to have used dir­

ect observation to imitate their puffy roundness and buoy­ ant flight.

He has given the work an energy and movement

that would not be possible had he used the conventional Persianizing clouds we see in folio 50 (PI. 15). In the context of the Hamza-nama, folio 61, Amir handing Hamza the ring of his enemy Zumurrud Shah, as a sign of his death (PI. 16) is remarkably different from the rest both in its depiction of the sky and the composi­ tion as a whole.

There are only two figures placed in the

center foreground; Amir stands at the left, handing the ring to Hamza, who sits on his horse facing him.

The

direction of the outstretched arms and the glance between them unite them in a solemn gesture.

The figures are set

against overlapping hills of shaded rocks softly glowing in subdued pastel purples and oranges, and punctuated by richly leaved trees that diminish in size, increasing the illusion of height and spatial recession.

At the base of

the two figures are the lifeless remains

of the defeated

enemy; they are also seen at the very bottom edge of the painting, forming a repoussoir.

In the upper right-hand

comer a small cityscape painted as if quoted from an European work seems to lie far away beyond the hills.

The

dark blue sky is shaded and greyed with flights of barely discemable birds flying above the horizon heightening an

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illusion of space and recession.

The air of awesome solem­

nity in this poignant scene is reinforced by the two fig­ ures set in the vast landscape, under a wide sky.

It does

not seem necessary to the narrative that it be shown this way.

Rather the artist has chosen this composition in or­

der to emphasize the scale of the natural world.

This

rather humbles Man and the material world, so dynamically presented in most other Hamza-nama paintings.

This treat­

ment of the landscape and the figure placement is unique to this one painting in the Hamza-nama.

It does not give

the impression of first hand observation that we feel in Basawan's Tuti-nama landscape paintings.

The distant town

is too toy-like in its proportions, the flight of birds too regular and trite a motif, to be more than copies based on p . European images.

10

The Raza Library Tilasm and Zodiac (c. 1570-1580) Sky and landscape images presumed to derive from Eur­ opean paintings are an interesting characteristic of an undated Akbari manuscript of Tilasm and Zodiac in the Raza Library, Rampur.

The manuscript is a collection of

talismans believed by the Persians to be efficacious in obtaining certain ends: bringing harm to one's enemies and good fortune for oneself, or causing or curing particular physical ailments.

Practice of this sort of magic had a

long tradition in Persia.

The Tilasm is believed to have

been a part of Akbar's library.^

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The manuscript is in an incomplete state today, com­ prising sixteen double page folios.

It is divided between

pages of six small, (c. 6 inches by 4 inches) paintings each of which illustrates the talismans and full page paint ings representing the planets in particular signs of the Zodiac.

These latter paintings may refer to certain aus­

picious times for performing particular talismanic spells. The smaller paintings are composed with few exceptions with one, or at most two, large central figures, often of a striking and sometimes bizarre appearance.

These figures

are seen in active poses full of vitality and individual personality.

Their brilliantly colored garments follow

their movements and are full of the vitality of the wearers The rich color is intensified by black outline and shading. The figures are frequently placed in landscape settings, often eccentric or foreboding, with many curious details producing an eerie effect unique to this manuscript. Three-dimensional shading, overlapping curving ground lines, diminution of trees, scaled down buildings drawn in perspective against a brushy blue sky, are often used to create an effect of illusionistic space.

The early

date of the Tuti-nama might well have precluded the strong European influence that must have inspired these Tilasm landscapes.

Considering other strong simi

between

the Hamza-nama and the Tilasm, however, I find it difficult to argue that the common use of illusionistic landscapes in the Tilasm and certain other prominent Europeanisms

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indicate a much later date for it, and thus more familiar­ ity with and use of European inspired images.

We have

just seen instances where newly-developed ideas and tech­ niques were in popular use and available to an artist, and he chose not to use them, as in the Hamza-nama.

It

seems quite possible that both the extraordinarily vivid use of color and the illusionistic landscape treatment were chosen to correspond to the magical text.

One can imagine

the terrifying impression that realistic rendering of three dimensional forms, volumes and atmospheric space common in 16th century European art must have made on Akbar and his contemporaries.

For eyes accustomed to the decor­

ative patterns and flat line drawing of Indian and Persian art of the early 16th century it must have been truly felt, " ..... that painters, especially those of Europe, succeed in drawing figures expressive of the conceptions which the artist has of any of the mental states, so

12 much so, that people may mistake a picture for a reality". Abul-Fazl in his chapter on the art of painting in the Ain-i Akbari, speaking of Akbar's atelier continues, "Such excellent artists have assembled here that a fine match has been created to the world-renowned unique art 13 of Bihzad and the magic making of the Europeans". We see these magical, if somewhat naive, landscapes over and over in the Tilasm, combined with illusionistic, atmos­ pheric skies, several of them quite spectacular images. Another leaf (PI. 17), a man running and carrying a

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human head darts through the landscape, his white scarf flying, his red tunic supematurally glowing against dark green and blue foliage and the lowering sky.

Foreground

rocks, diagonally angled mounds of earth, their direction emphasized with broad brush strokes, recede back to a row of trees and several towered buildings on the right, all scaled down and modeled with heavy shadows.

Three flights

of birds, graduated in size, give depth to the sky.

The

contrast between the sharp, clear outline of the lone figure and the softer, more broadly brushed background colors is striking and sets him free in space.

Heavy black

shadow heightens the contrast and intensifies the gory effect of the pale head.

The sky is effectively shaded

from rich light blues to a near black.

Unlike Hamza-nama,

folio 68, the large size and vivid coloring of the figures in the small Tilasm paintings never permit them to be dwarfed by the implied vast dimension of the landscape. A second strange Tilasm figure stands half-naked near a stream, holding a rose (PI. 18).

Overlapping,

shaded and darkly outlined rocks begin the spatial reces­ sion from the foreground continued by a diagonal stream, its horizontal bank rising from a vertical edge which 14 meets the water. The stream flows back to shadowed woods and buildings much diminished in scale against the sky shaded from dark to pale blue. Although the landscape does not appear to be drawn directly from nature, the artist may have looked at the

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natural landscape and, inspired by European depictions of landscape, taken elements from that tradition to achieve his ’'magical" or more realistic settings.

The profile fig­

ure, so awkwardly drawn that it is difficult to decide if he is meant to have one or two legs, seems to have been made by an artist copying a figure he does not really under­ stand.

In general the impression emerges that many of

these paintings were made with the aid of pattern books or collections of European prints.

It looks as though com­

binations of various elements from a variety of sources were put together in an eclectic manner by artists who were often extremely skilled but not highly original.

At the

same time the production of the manuscript was probably carefully supervised by one or two masters who set a certain tone which does unify the work.

The strong color, con­

trasted with black outline and shadows and the illusionistic landscapes with naturalistic skies were major elements in achieving the cohesion and continuity that distinguishes the manuscript.

We see this occur again and again.

In the

painting of a man carrying a jar (PI. 19), the isolation of the lone figure against the vast landscape differs from Hamza-nama compositions.

Another Tilasm painting, of

a man running, (PI. 20) gives the impression that here the artist has actually painted the swelling banks of clouds that fill his sky from his own observation. The Tilasm zodiac paintings are larger, 18 inches by 12 inches, and more complex compositions with many figures

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21

of people and animals.

Nevertheless a large portion of the

picture space is dominated by illusionistic landscape and sky.

In some folios the figures seem not to be really in

the landscape, but set against its magical space, very much as the constellations which they represent appear against the night sky. (PI. 21).

The sun in Leo is an example of this

Splendid Persianizing animals, -- delicately

figured lions, tigers, and leopards,-- display their elegant markings in fine detail, very much flattening the foreground and middleground in spite of the repoussoir consisting of a small tree and boulders at the bottom edge.

The dazzling

gold sun ablaze in the intense shaded blue sky, its rays blurred as though by effects of atmosphere, dominates the scene, however, above an European-inspired perspective view of distant trees and buildings.

It seems that the

direct observation of the sun itself has inspired this image superimposed over the Persian symbolic image still very much in the artist's consciousness. A second zodiac page, the Moon in Cancer, (PI. 22) leans less on Persian tradition.

The rather grotesque

crab-like character of the crustaceans, seen in bird's eye view, is slightly ominous, and they are darkly sil­ houetted against the pale ground, tipping up the middleground, which then recedes into the distance in a series of overlapping mounds and diminished proportions of small clusters of buildings and trees on the horizon.

A pale

crescent moon dramatized with black shadows gleams white in

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the upper left comer, while the sun in the center, its rays refracted as though by cosmic vapors and mists, aban­ dons the Persian symbol in favor of an abstract expression­ ist ic statement of heat and energy.

This image, too, seems

to indicate first-hand observation, inspired perhaps by the implied direct observation of "magical" European paintings.

The Kitab-i-Sa'at (1583) The Tilasm manuscript invites comparison with the Kitab-i-Sa1at, an astrological treatise made for the power­ ful Mughal noble, Mirza Aziz Koka, and dated 1583.

This

contains twelve paintings that range in size from 8.3 x 11.5 cm to 7.8 x 8.5 cm, representing the planets in each of the twelve constellations of the zodiac.

The subject

matter thus corresponds closely with the larger paintings of the Raza Library Tilasm. The style is quite different from the Tilasm; the Kitab-i-Sa* at is presumed to have been painted by only two artists whose styles are notably similar.^

Indeed, the

twelve paintings are all remarkably similar in composition, style and tone.

They are composed as are many of the

small Tilasm paintings with only one or two figures in a landscape.

The colors here are subdued, laid on in thin

washes, often used only as outline and to model the deli­ cate landscape forms.

The pale beige paper is allowed to

show through on much of the page, as in a painted sketch.

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Also unlike the Tilasm, the main figures are never placed directly in the center, but are set on one side and balan­ ced by an animal, another figure or a landscape form on the other side.

Both painters are well trained, expert in

using proportion, modeling, light and shadow, progressive diminution and overlapping to show convincing three-dimen­ sional forms and physical space.

They seem to understand

these devices and use them to present a clear, coherent space quite unlike the often illogical structure, skewed perspective and eclectic collection of elements in the Tilasm paintings.

The well-modeled figures show real

observation of the body in various positions, although there is still some awkwardness with female and nude figure Mars in Aries, (PI. 23) is typical of the Kitab-i-Sa'at style in its calm mood and well-balanced horizontal format, the walking man on the left balanced with a ram and modeled rocky outcrop on the right; a delicate, skillfully sketched tree in the upper left c o m e r is matched with another in the lower right comer.

We only slowly become

aware of the severed human head and the sword released from its scabbard.

The pale washes of soft color that

represent the sky and flights of well observed birds comp­ liment the refined restraint of the work as a whole.

These

painters have achieved a mastery and understanding of illusionistic rendering which for the Tilasm painters was still strange and magical. Only one folio, 27r, the Moon in Cancer (PI. 24), rises beyond the restraint of the others to evoke a mood Original from

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of imaginative lyricism and could owe its inspiration to the corresponding Tilasm folio.

Though not always on the

best of terms, Mirza Aziz Koka, by whom the manuscript was commissioned, was a childhood companion and life-long friend of Akbar and an important and successful military ally in 1583.

It seems probable that his two painters

might have been familiar with Akbar's library and thus with the Tilasm.

The composition of folio 27r, unique in the

Kitab-i-Sa'at, features a single centrally-placed figure in a landscape, the crab, his dark body a strong contrast against the pale ground.^

The landscape is a complex

arrangement of rocks, hills, trees, and buildings seen against the horizon under a luminous sky set with a glow­ ing moon.

The foreground pool, the birdseye view of the

crab, the deep recession of the landscape, the buildings and wooded hills on the horizon, the impact of the atmos­ pheric sky and glowing moon all echo the Tilasm Moon in Cancer.

In addition, a pair of animals in the right middle-

ground, almost hidden in the rocky landscape, are unique in the Kitab-i-Sa1at and a common feature of the Tilasm. It is possible that the rather ambiguous pale pink edge on the far bank of the pool is related to the unusual ver­ tical landscape form seen in the Tilasm paintings of the half-naked man.

Perhaps this example is not a direct

copy but seems to derive from Tilasm images. The effect is not as strong as in the Tilasm painting

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because the artist unlike his Tilasm counterpart has mas­ tered his technique -- what for the Tilasm painter was still new and mystifying is now understood -- the magic has become a smoothly executed magic trick.

The Anwar-i Suhaili (1570) A manuscript belonging to the School of Oriental and African Studies in London of the Anwar-i Suhaili dated 1570 continues to support the contention that except in rare instances of special inspiration the painters’ atti­ tude about the sky was that it be conventionalized to re­ enforce the general character of the work.

Thus the sky

may compliment the rest of the painting, but is not neces­ sarily integrated into it.

In this manuscript, character­

ized by skilled graceful drawing, expressively warm color, a variety of well-composed imaginative settings, convin­ cing three-dimensional space, and well-modeled figures in close psychological relationships implying interesting narrative content, it seems strange that the sky is usually treated as an additive decorative element, unless one con­ cedes a general disinterest in the sky except in special circumstances, which I believe we find here. Of 27 existing Anwar-i Suhaili paintings, reproduct­ ions of only 26 were available to study. resented in 22 of them.

The sky is rep­

Scenes 1 and 3 are unlike the

others, far more Persian in feeling with flat gold skies, and probably represent the work of an artist who did not

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26

work on the rest of the manuscript.

Scenes 8 and 14

(Pis. 25 and 26) show a peculiarity typical of ten individual folios.

A panel of text intrudes into the

picture space separating one portion of the sky from the rest.

These two areas are treated as though unrelated.

Scene 14 is a clear example of this.

The portion below

the panel of the text is painted a flat solid grey-blue, while above the panel of the text the sky is a mass of delicately shaded horizontal cirrus clouds with small birds in flight revealed against them.

The sky shows deep­

er blue at the left c o m e r and top edge.

The part above

the panel is so unusually well and illusionistically painted that it seems to be the work of an artist specially trained to paint this kind of sky.^

In folio 8 we see

the sky below the panel of text modeled in horizontal bands of pale to middle shades of blue.

The modeling technique

is not unlike that of the rocks.

The sky above and to the

left of the panel is more smoothly shaded from one sunset color to another, fading to pale gold and beige at the top.

Once again it seems to be the work of a different

hand from the rest.

It is possible that the painting was

first outlined and the sky color above and left of the panel laid on by the "sky expert".

The rest of the scene

was then painted by another artist, including the net of birds, certain landscape trees and so forth, overlaid on the sky.

In these folios the idealized "expert skies" are

so smoothly painted, with such a subtle use of gold, not

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in character with the lower portions, that they seem con­ ceived, by whoever oversaw production of the manuscript, as a separate element to add elegance to an already ex­ quisite work.

I will propose several theories to explain

this and other peculiarities of the SOAS Anwar-i Suhaili. These peculiarities are, first, the rather less finished sloppy execution of several backgrounds, second, the obvious enlargement of the space provided for the individual paint­ ings; and third, the distinctly different style of Scenes 1 and 3. Paintings on five folios cover the entire page with a horizontal panel of text at the top and bottom.

For the

other folios a smaller rectangle of space was reserved for the paintings and defined with narrow borders of fine line and gold with panels of text at top or bottom or both.

I

believe that at some point in the production of the manu­ script a great change was made in the overall plan for it. It is possible that scenes 1 and 3 may have been painted in the early stage.

It was, I believe, also decided that

some paintings originally planned to occupy only a portion of a page, for which the borders were already provided, should instead be made to cover the entire page.

Many of

the paintings may have been underway at this point. Some of the painters, faced with this problem, of expand­ ing the paintings, handled it masterfully, integrating the text, panel and border so well into the larger space one would imagine it was originally designed that way.

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Scene 18 (PI. 27) is a superb example.

The interior of the

room is beautifully fitted into the small panel, the extra or enlarged space cleverly given over to an outdoor court­ yard and sky.

Above the dramatic indoor scene, the dome

and parapets of the house shine in the light of a crescent moon in a dark sky scintillating with stars.

Palm trees

shimmer and foliage, almost black against the midnight sky, reflects tiny pools of radiance.

It is a striking image

painted by an artist whose own sensitivity to a night sky inspired his work.

His genius is obvious in his solution

to the compositional problem of extending the original scene to new dimensions.

Scene 13 (PI. 28), similarly

composed may well be by the same hand.

I believe scene 27

(PI. 29) to be the work of a lesser artist inspired by the painter(s) of scenes 13 and 18.

His similar, though less

well executed composition and more conventionalized sky would indicate this. The talented painter of scene 12, (PI. 30) his task not complicated by a panel of text, conceals the borders under the opaque paint and paints an effective sky, decor­ ative, but based on observation, the rhythms of the birds and thin gold clouds echoing the strong rhythms in the composition. But because the sky was so often considered unimpor­ tant, few artists, even the capable painter of scene 14, had the training or interest to give it special character This became a problem in the Anwar-i Suhaili, where

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compositional problems necessitated giving over a much larger area to the sky than is generally the case in Mughal painting.

If my assumptions are correct, it is possible

that because some of the painters were unable to deal with the problem, as the rather unattractive streaky skies in scenes 2 and 4 might indicate, (Pis. 31 and 32), a special­ ist was employed to paint the skies in those pictures where the original artist was unable to match them with his otherwise elegant finish.

It seems from the individualized

nature of the figures and settings that the easy solution of a flat gold or blue sky was not acceptable in the later stages of the work. It seems increasingly clear that in some early experi­ ments the sky was represented as it appears to the eye probably as an extension of the direct observation that was necessary to individualize figures and interior spaces.

The interest that European landscape images ex­

cited, may also have inspired these representations.

Later

painters concentrated on the activities of men, and of animals, or on man-made achievements, grand cities and palaces.

Their main concern was not with nature, which

tends, as we see in Chinese and Western landscape painting to diminish the scale and importance of man.

Hamza-nama

folio 61 is an unusual example in Mughal painting of man humbled by nature.

Thus, the space given over to the sky

was reduced, or as in the Anwar-i Suhaili examples, it was given an idealized decorative treatment, much as illuminated

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borders are used to enhance the overall elegance of a man­ uscript, but are not seen as an integral part of the paint­ ings.

The unusual treatment of the sky and landscape in

folio 27r of the Kitab-i-Sa1at appears to be a result of the impact on an individual painter of the extraordinary impres­ sion of the Tilasm paintings, and the Tilasm landscapes may be a result of the wish to incorporate magical paint­ ings into a magical text.

Moreover, in most cases the

exaggerated scale and extraordinary vividness of the cen­ tral figures of the Tilasm command the viewers' main attention.

Later Works For confirmation of this attitude we can look to rep­ resentations of the sky in works of the 1580's and 90's. Folio 3v from the Darab-nama of c. 1585 (PI. 33), executed in the royal workshops, probably at Lahore, shows the landscape forms modified to compliment the character and form of the dragon.

The small sky is roughly blocked in,

in contrast to the meticulous detail of the rest.

In a

Basawan painting from the same manuscript, folio 34r (PI. 34), the impressionistic landscape painter of the 1560's has turned his genius to the masterful depiction of architectural space, fully rounded modeling of forms, de­ tailed definition of textures and psychological relationships of figures.

The narrow strip of sky is composed of pale

pastel washes of color over gold to compliment the exquisite

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cityscape

framing the central scene of sensitive human

interaction.

In an even more finely constructed work by

Basawan, folio 9r, from a Baharistan of Jami, dated 1595, (PI. 35) a marvel of intricate illusionistic architectural spaces and details, animals, birds, and plants noted with sensitive observation, all carefully composed to dramatize the relationship of the two central figures, the sky is like so much tinsel decoration, a patch of wide bands of gold, white and blue.

In these later paintings as in the

Akbar-nama c. 1590 the skies occupy only a very small part of the picture space.

They generally are subtly graded

to give a sense of light and are colored to harmonize with the composition as a whole.

Basawan's Tuti-nama

sky painting, a superb work in itself, was not the answer to the problems that generally faced the Mughal painters from the 1580's on.

Although it could be a source of

marvelous light effects, the sky was to be de-emphasized, the horizon pushed higher to make room for Akbar, his palaces and gardens, his armies and hunting parties, his elephants, his retinues. A legacy did remain in Mughal painting of the natural moonlight and sunlight that was not to be allowed to out­ shine the radiance of the great Mughals themselves.

Yet

this continued to add splendor to the artistic products of their civilization, modified but clearly indebted to those painters who looked with fresh eyes to record the natural world.

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I note several examples.

The skies of the Timur-nama

c. 1580-84, a Mughal history manuscript, are generally similar to those of the Akbar-nama but with several delight­ ful surprises.

An example is the sky of folio 3 (PI. 36),

decorative but with a whimsical fairytale quality.

Skilled

drawing, sharp outline, bright clear colors and soft jewel tones, slightly exaggerated perspective and figure propor­ tion, and tiny interesting details tempt one away from the rational world into a charmed palace garden with a view of a cityscape at night.

A crescent moon in a sky full

of stars rises over the domes and rooftops of Mughal build­ ings.

The pale light touches the rooftops and discovers

an intriguing figure high up in a tower.

Here the mood

set by the night sky seems an integral part of the whole painting.

In folio 24r, a painting by Miskina from a

Baharistan of Jami dated 1595, (PI. 37), a Persianizing landscape of tents and figures, lyrical in the repeated curves of its flowing line, recedes to a far distance with the use of overlapping shapes of diminishing propor­ tion, dark shadow and highlights modeling the forms into relief.

The scene is set and the shadows come alive

under the warm moonlight that pours from the dark blue starry sky filled with the radiance of a round white moon and its luminous pale yellow aura. A very late portrait of Muhammad Shah Viewing a Garden, c. 1730-40 (PI. 38), illustrates the symbolic role of the sky in Mughal painting exaggerated to its limit.

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The stylized brilliant red and gold sky emerges from behind sombre clouds just as Muhammad Shah emerges from his pavil­ ion, to act as a kind of celestial halo illuminating the Mughal noble.

Thus it seems that in addition to recording

the marvelous real-world exploits of Akbar, the image of nature could be bent in the painted world he patronized and inspired, to reflect the glory of Akbar, his ancestors and his heirs.

Conclusion Akbar and his court indulged their love of illustrated manuscripts with the production of a number of books.

They

were illustrated in the royal workshops by a group of painters, both Indian and Persian, working under the gui­ dance of two Persian masters.

In less than twenty years

they had trained many fine artists and a distinctive style developed that was far more realistic than the style of earlier paintings of India and Persia.

Learning to paint

from observation the artists included in their early work views of nature, more or less as they appear to the eye, some influenced by European examples.

The breadth of these

early experiments can be seen in the Tuti-nama.

The

Hamza-nama was an effort to incorporate more realism and vitality into a Mughal work idealizing and agrandizing their legendary ancestors.

By and large this left room

only for human effort and achievement, diminishing the role of the sky.

The magical backgrounds that accord so well

with the subject matter of the Tilasm brought naturalistic Original from

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skies into painting influenced by an as-yet unmastered European model, with some examples from first-hand obser­ vation.

The technical problems posed by the SOAS Anwar-i

Suhaili resulted in a virtuoso decorative style based on natural forms, a style echoed on a lesser scale in the Darab-nama and refined in literary and poetical works of the 90's , such as the Baharistan of Jami.

This had no

place in the Akbar-nama, filled as it was with the materia achievements of the great Mughal.

The Akbar-nama skies

are almost eliminated and given no distinction.

In later

periods the sky was stylized and colored to re-enforce the mood of the human subject or human activity beneath it. The very nature of the real sky, overwhelming in its scope in comparison to man, seems to have made it a difficult subject for Mughal artists to

into Akbar's

paintings. Perhaps because it was not generally accented there was no generalized method in early works for painting the sky.

Thus early works can be recognized by rather unsure

representations usually based on others' observation of nature with a few interesting individual interpretations of great imagination and flair.

As painters developed mastery

in portraying Mughal ideals, the sky was conventionalized to play an unobtrusive or decorative role, and as later Mughal painting became more self-conscious the sky was styl­ ized, becoming a reflection of the subject.

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35

FOOTNOTES 1.

Abul Fazl, Ain-i Akbari, translation H. Blochmann, p. 103.

2.

Abul Fazl, Ain-i Akbari, translation H. Blochmann, p. 113.

3.

P. Chandra, The Tuti-nama of the Cleveland Museum of Art, p. 9l. All the Tuti-nama folios have been recut and remargined which may account for the lack of an inscription on folio 35r. The attribution to Basawan on the basis of style seems indisputable.

4.

Abul Fazl, op.cit. p. 114.

5.

The painters of the Tuti-nama have been determined by P. Chandra on the basis of ascriptions, and where they are missing, on the basis of style. The names of only 12 painters are known, the rest are anon­ ymous. For purposes of convenience and his discus­ sion Chandra has identified thirty-three unnamed painters according to letters of the alphabet. Under this system folio 168v is attributed to painter 0.

6.

The effect of strong patterning in an Indo*Persian manner as in folio 167v, plate 4a, a similar comp­ osition, but less successful depiction of three dimensional space, is to flatten the surface. This and the fact that the tents are placed in a strong triangle makes the lower half of the painting work as a flat design element so that the top scene seems to float above rather than lie behind it.

7.

Because Abul Fazl in his discussion of Akbar's painters states that Dasavanta "surpassed all painters", and because his folio precedes Basawan's in the Tuti-nama, it might be presumed that it was Basawan who took Dasavanta's work as a model. There is, however, no evidence that the paintings were executed in the order in which they appear, and an inspection of the manuscript suggests that a number of painters must have worked on it simultaneously over a period of time. Not enough facts are known about the life of either painter to be able to determine which of them might have been the greater influence on the other. Even Abul Fazl states that many critics preferred Basawan. Thus the question seems to be best resolved by an analysis of the works in question.

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36 8.

Tuti-nama folio 212v is unascribed and unattributed. It bears so many hallmarks of Basawan's style that I am surprised it has not been attributed to him. Most immediately telling, perhaps, are the two skillfully painted frontal faces, "a rare phenomen­ on in painting of the Akbar period" according to Wilhelm Staude, and notable in other Basawan paint­ ings. The same can be said of the individualization of the many faces and figures whose movements and postures seem motivated as much by the internal psychology of the persons represented as by the external demands of the narrative or by purely formal considerations. The strong triangular composition and diagonal movements are typical of Basawan's com­ positional genius, as well as the attention placed on details and textures of architecture, fabrics, hair, and landscape. Foreshortening of the limbs of almost all the figures and particularly the wo­ man 's knee, and the arms of the man in red and the man in white, is far more convincing than in most Tuti-nama figures, where it is hardly even attempted. Basawan's love for modeling draped fabric is evi­ dent in the sail, the full skirt of the pink tunic of the man on the left, and the way the white sash of the man in red seems actually to encircle his waist and define his girth. The sensitively modeled face of the woman, softened by the veil and the gently rounded contours of her cheek, mouth, nose, and eyelid, endow her with a tenderness lacking in most early Akbari female figures, and adds a poignant emotional dimension to the scene. The depiction of the water is inspired by a combina­ tion of imagination and observation, resources Basawan employed in full. Finally the background landscape rocks and sky are executed with the unique fluidity and "wet" brushwork of Basawan's early style.

9.

Hamza-nama, facsimile Vol. LII/1, Akademische Druck-u.

10.

Although the earliest recorded presence of European art in Akbar's court is 1580 when Jesuit mission­ aries brought a Plantin's Royal Polyglot Bible, printed in Antwerp and illustrated with engravings as a gift to Akbar, as early as 1572 the official records of Akbar's reign record a meeting with Europeans and an offering of gifts of European articles to Akbar. Although there is no evidence at this time, some critics believe examples of European art were available to Mughal artists as early as the late 1560's. Milo Beach, A European Source for Early Mughal Painting, pgs. 180-188.

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11.

The Moghuls took great interest in both astronomy and astrology. It was popular with Persians and Indians alike and thought to influence the affairs of men. Abul Fazl, the Akbar-nama, translation H. Beverage, Vol. Ill, pjT 310-315. Jahangir even had coins minted bearing signs of the Zodiac. Encylopedia of World Art, Vol. II, p. 46.

12.

Abul Fazl, o£. cit. p. 103.

13.

Abul Fazl, Ain-i Akbari, cited P. Chandra, The Tutinama of the Cleveland Museum of Art, p. 162, translation Prof. C. M. foain,“University of Chicago.

14.

This vertical edge, an effective means of achieving three dimensional form, seems unique to this man­ uscript among Persian, Indian, or other contempor­ ary Mughal works. It is quite similar to forms common in Chinese landscape painting. An unusual rock in another Tilasm painting, carefully modeled with black tearshaped hollows very much like a fantastic Chinese garden rock and yet another folio with a small stand of bamboo, motifs all quite unusual in 16th century Mughal painting raise the question of Chinese influence. If the models for these motifs were not only ceramics with dec­ orative details and Artists did have the oppor­ tunity to see Chinese landscape painting, the effect seems minimal. Perhaps the lack of a sense of particular place and basic philosophic difference in the depiction of human scale against the natural world precluded serious consideration of it by Moghul artists.

15.

Toby Falk.

16.

Folio 28a, Sun in Leo, also has one central figure. Toby Falk describes this folio as "Sun in Leo: the sun blazing upon a landscape in which stands a lion". It seems to me a more accurate account would be: a monochromatic landscape in which one can barely make out a weakly rayed sun and an almost invisible lion.

17.

Although many early Mughal paintings are probably the work of a single artist, it was not unusual for two artists to collaborate on one work.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Barrett, Douglas and Basil Gray. Skira, 1963.

Painting of India,

Beach, Milo C. A European Source for Early Moghal Painting, Oriental Art, Summer 1976, V o l . X X l l , No. Chandra, Pramod, The Tuti-Nama of the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Origins of MogKul Painting, Graz"j 1976. Encyclopedia of World Art.

Vol. II, p. 46.

ibid.

Basawan, Vol. II, p. 384.

ibid.

Dasawanth, Vol. Ill, p. 234.

Falk, Toby, Ellen Smart and Robert Skelton. Indian Paint­ ing, P & D Colnaghi & Co., Ltd., London, 1978. Fazl, Abul.

Ain-i Akbari, translation H. Blochman.

Fazl, Abul. The Akbar Nama, translation H. Beveridge, Delhi, 1977. Gascoigne, Bamber. Gray, Basil.

The Great Moghuls, Harper & Row, 1971.

Persian Painting, Rizzoli/New York, 1977.

Hamza Nama. facimile, Vol. LII, Akademische Druck-u, Graz, 1976. Khandalavala, Karl and Moti Chandra. Indian Painting, Bombay, 1969.

New Documents of

Khandalavala, Karl and Jagdish Mittal. An Akbari Manuscript of Tilasm and Zodiac, LaXit~Kala, No. 14. Welch, Stuart Cary. A Flower from Every Meadow, Asia House, New York, 1973. Welch, Stuart Cary. York, 1976.

Persian Painting, Braziller, New

Welch, Stuart Cary. 1978.

Imperial Mughal Painting, New York,

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LIST OF PLATES Plate 1.

Tuti-nama, folio 35r, attributed to Basawan. The hunter captures the mother parrot. Cleveland Museum of Art. Tuti-nama facsimile, Akademische Druck-u Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1976.

Plate 2.

Piwan of Hafiz,c. 1527, folio 67r, attributed to Sultan Muhammad. Lovers Picnicking. Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University. Persian Painting, Stuart Cary Welch, p. 62.

Plate 3.

Chaurapanchasika. c. 1527-1570. Champavati. N. C. Mehta Gallery of Miniature painting, Ahmedabad. The Tuti-nama of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Pramod Chandra, P I . 85"!

Plate 4.

Tuti-nama, folio 168v. Habbaza meets Bashir under a tree. Cleveland Museum of Art Tuti-nama facsimile, Akademische Druck-u Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1976.

Plate 4a.

Tuti-nama, folio 167v. Bashir confides his love for Habbaza to an Arab friend and sends him to her with a message. Cleveland Museum of Art. Tuti-nama facsimile, Akademische Druck-u Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1976.

Plate 5.

Tuti-nama, folio 32r, attributed to Dasavanta. The parrot mother cautions her young on the danger of playing with foxes. Cleveland Museum of Art. Tuti-nama facsimile, Akademische Druck-u Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1976.

Plate 6.

Tuti-nama, folio 207.r, attributed to Basawan. The donkey, in a tiger's skin reveals his identity by braying aloud. Cleveland Museum of Art. Tuti-nama facsimile, Akademische Druck-u Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1976.

Plate 7.

Tuti-nama, folio 212v Unfavourable winds arise on the seas when Khursid is deceitfully sold into slavery during her pilgrimage to Mecca. Collection of Edwin Binney 3rd. Tuti-nama facsimile, Akademische Druck-u Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1976.

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Plate 8.

Hamza-nama, folio 23, detail. Amir surprises Manzur-i Kamram, cuts off his beard and takes the treasures. Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna. The Tuti-nama of the Cleveland Museu of Art,

Plate 9.

Hamza-nama, folio 46. Princess Malakmah is abducted. Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 10.

Hamza-nama, folio 6. Hamza kills the leader of the people with elephant ears. Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 11.

Hamza-nama, folio 25 detail. Rustam hews Marku: and armor in two. Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna The Tuti-nama of the Cleveland Museu til of Art, Pramod (Jhandra, Pi. 277

Plate 12.

Hamza-nama, folio 54. Mirdukht1s escape from dangerous men. Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna. Imperial Mughal Painting, Stuart Cary Welch, p .43

Plate 13.

Hamza-nama, folio 58. Amir on the hermit's pillar. Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 14.

Hamza-nama, folio 38. Zumurrud Shah flees his enemies by flying on magic jugs. Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 15.

Hamza-nama, folio 50. Khadja Bakhtak, disguised as Amir, is snatched to heaven. Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

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Plate 16.

Hamza-nama, folio 61. Amir brings Hamza the ring of his enemy Zumurrua Shah as a sign of his death. Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 17.

Tilasm and Zodiac. A man running carrying a human head. Raza Library, Rampur. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 18.

Tilasm and Zodiac. A half naked man holding a rose. Raza Library, Rampur. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 19.

Tilasm and Zodiac. A man running carrying a jar. Raza Library, Rampur. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 20.

Tilasm and Zodiac. A man running. Raza Library, Rampur. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 21.

Tilasm and Zodiac. Sun in Leo. Raza Library, Rampur. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 22.

Tilasm and Zodiac. Moon in Cancer. Raza Library, Rampur. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 23.

Kitab-i-Sa 'at, folio 24v, dated 1583. Mars in Aries. P & D Colnaghi 6c Co. Ltd. , London. Indian Painting, P 6c D Colnaghi 6c Co. Ltd. , p.20

Plate 24.

Kitab-i-Sa'at dated 1583, folio 27r. Moon in Cancer. P 6c D Colnaghi 6c Co. Ltd., London University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

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42 Plate 25.

Anvar-i Suhaili, dated 1570, folio 123r. Scene 8. School of Oriental and African Studies, London. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 26.

Anwar-i Suhaili, dated 1570, folio 174r. Scene 14. School of Oriental and African Studies, London. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 27.

Anwar-i Suhaili, dated 1570, folio 199v. Scene 18. School of Oriental and African Studies, London. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 28.

Anwar-i Suhaili, dated 1570, folio 172r. Scene 13. School of Oriental and African Studies, London. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 29.

Anwar-i Suhaili, dated 1570, folio 334r. Scene 27. School of Oriental and African Studies, London. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 30.

Anwar-i Suhaili, dated 1570, folio 168v. Scene 12. School of Oriental and African Studies, London. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 31.

Anwar-i Suhaili, dated 1570, folio 36r. Scene 2. School of Oriental and African Studies, London. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 32.

Anwar-i Suhaili, dated 1570, folio 75r. Scene 4. School of Oriental and African Studies, London. University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 33.

Darab-nama c. 1585, folio 3v. Shah Ardashir's Fate. British Museum, London. Imperial Mughal Painting, Stuart Cary Welch p.49.

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Plate 34.

Darab-nama c. 1585, folio 34r, by Basawan. Tamarusa and Shapur at the Island of Nigar. British Museum, London Imperial Mughal Painting, Stuart Cary Welch, P •51

Plate 35.

Baharistan of Jami, dated 1595, folio 9r, by Basawan The Foppish Dervish Rebuked. Bodleian Library, Oxford. Imperial Mughal Painting, Stuart Cary Welch, p.55

Plate 36.

Timur-nama c. 1580-84, folio 3 detail A nightscene in a palace garden Kudabaksh Library University of California, Berkeley, History of Art slide library.

Plate 37.

Baharistan of Jami, dated 1595, folio 42r, by Miskin. The Story of the Unfaithful Wife. Bodleian Library, Oxford. Painting of India, Douglass Barrett and Basil Grey, p. H"5.

Plate 38.

Muhammad Shah Viewing a Garden, c. 1730-40. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Imperial Mughal Painting, Stuart Cary Welch, p.

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44

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Plate 1. Tuti-nama, folio 35r, attributed to Basawan. The hunter captures the mother parrot.

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Plate 2. Biwan of Hafiz, c. 1527, folio 67 r, attributed to Sultan Muhammad. s~> Digitized by V j O O g i C

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Plate 3. Chaurapanchasika, c. 1527-1570 Champavati Digitized by

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Plate 4. Tuti-nama, folio 168v Habbaza meets Bashir under a tree. Digitized by

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Plate 4a. Tuti-nama, folio 167v Bashir confides his love for Habbaza to an Arab friend and sends him to her w ^ ^ jn§( f^ ^ s a g e . Digitized by i j O O g L C

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Plate 5. Tuti-nama, folio 32r, attributed to Dasavanta The parrot mother cautions her young on the danger of playing with foxes. Digitized by

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50

Plate 6. Tuti-nana, folio 207r, attributed to Basawan. The donkey, in a tiger's skin reveals his r ^

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Plate 7. Tuti-nama, folio 212v Unfavourable winds arise on the seas when Khursid is deceitfully sold into Digitized by V J j Q i n g t g r p ilg r im a g e OF CALIFORNIA

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Plate 8. Hamza-nama, folio 23, detail. Amir surprises Manzur-i Kamram, cuts off his beard Wflofcakes the treasures Original from Digitized by

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Plate 9. Hamza-nama, folio 46. Princess Malakmah is abducted. Digitized by

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Plate 10. Hamza-nama, folio 6. Hamza kills the leader of the people with elephant ears. Digitized by

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Plate 11. Hamza-nama, folio 25 detail. Rustam hews Marku and armor in two. Digitized by

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Plate 12. Homa-nama. folio 54. Mirdukht's escape from dangerous men

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Plate 13. Hamza-nama, folio 58. Amir on the hermit's pillar. Digitized

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Plate 14. Hamza-nama, folio 38. Zumurrud Shah flees his enemies by flying on magic jugs. | Digitized by C j O O Q l C

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Plate 15. Hamza-nama, folio 50. Khadja Bakhtak, disguised as Amir, is snatched to heaven. Digitized by

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Plate 16. Hamza-nama, folio 61. Amir brings Hamza the ring of his enemy Zumurrua Shah as a sign of his d e a f ^ Digitized by

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61

Plate 17. Tilasm and Zodiac. A man running carrying a human head. Digitized by

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Plate 18. Tilasm and Zodiac. A half naked man holding a rose.

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Plate 19. Tilasm and Zodiac. A man running carrying a jar.

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Plate 20. Tilasm and Zodiac. A man running. Digitized by

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Plate 21. Tilasm and Zodiac. Sun in Leo. Digitized by

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66

Plate 22. Tilasm and Zodiac. Moon in Cancer. Digitized by

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Plate 24. Kitab-i-Sa1at dated 1583, folio 27r. Moon in Cancer. Digitized by

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69

Plate 25. Anwar-i Suhaili, dated 1570, folio 123r. Scene 8. Digitized by

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70

Plate 26. Anwar-i Suhaili, dated 1570, folio 174r. Scene 14. Digitized by

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Plate 27. Anwar-i Suhaili, dated 1570, folio 199v. Scene 18. Digitized by

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Plate 28. Anvar-i Suhaili, dated 1570, folio 172r. Scene 13. ~ 1_ Digitized by V ^ i U O g L C

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Plate 29. Anwar-i Suhaili, dated 1570, folio 334r. Scene 27.

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Plate 30. Anvar-i Suhaili, dated 1570, folio 168v. Scene 12. Digitized by

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Plate 31. Anvar-i Suhaili, dated 1570, folio 36r. Scene 2. Digitized by

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Plate 32. Anwar-1 Suhaili. dated 1570, folio 75r. Scene 4. Digitized by

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77

Shah Ardashir's Fate.

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Plate 34. Darab-nama c. 1585, folio 34r, by Basawan. Tamarusa^ajid Shapur at the Island of ^jLgajn. Digitized by G O O g l C

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79

3 Plate 35. Baharlstan of J a m l , dated 1595, folio 9r, by Basawan ^ -V The F o p p i s h Digitized by \ j O g lC

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Plate 36. Timur-nama c. 1580-84, folio 3 detail. A nightscene in a palace garden. Digitized by

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31

Plate 37. Baharistan of Jami, dated 1595, folio 42r, by Miskin. The Story of the Unfaithful Wife. Digitized by

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82

Plate 38. Muhammad Shah Viewing a Garden, c. 1730-40.

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