Aryan Books

BIBLICAL THEMES IN MUGHAL PAINTING: Crossing Cultural Frontiers

By :- S.P. Verma

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Pages: xxxii+132

Format: HB

ISBN-13: 978-81-7305-412-9

Place: New Delhi

Edition: 1st

Publisher: ARYAN BOOKS INTERNATIONAL

Size: 22cm x 28cm

Product Year: 2011

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Renaissance painting on biblical themes, full of exoticisms and great naturalism, inspired Mughal patrons, Akbar (r. 1556-1605), Jahangir (r. 1605-1627), Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1657) and their court painters active at Fatehpur Sikri, Agra, Lahore and Delhi. Akbar?s drives in search of truth in religion drew Christianity and its images close to the people of India. It proved to be a friendly meet between the East and the West and from there emerged a distinct Mughal entity in the art of India. The rulers and the artists of the Deccan Sultanates also showed interest in biblical pictures. The artists active at Bijapur and Golconda adapted conventions of Renaissance art and interpreted European subjects in Indian atmosphere. A sequence of the biblical themes in Indian art till the rise of Bengal school is suggested to form another volume. The present study analyzes the nature and nurture of biblical art in India and its far-reaching impact on the art of India ? an aspect of study too frequently ignored by the Indian art historians. Dr. Verma meticulously scrutinizes the elements of Renaissance humanism in Indian art and carefully interprets Christian signs and symbols and their relevance in support of an imperial ideology of the rulers. The present volume will interest serious scholars and students of history and culture of medieval India, the art historians, connoisseurs of art and those interested in the development of art in South Asia. The volume in hand, generously illustrated with 147 images in colour and black-and-white, unveils nearly all facets of the life of Jesus Christ and the works of the great masters of sixteenth and seventeenth centuries India.

Abbreviations xi Illustrations xvii 1. Introduction 1 A Historical Analysis of Mughal Painting 1 2. Mughals, Jesuits and the Biblical Pictures 23 3. Biblical Themes: The Indian Experience 43 4. Interpretation 67 I. Christian Signs, Symbols and Motifs 67 II. Renaissance Humanism 82 Glossary 97 Bibliography 103 Index 127

Professor S.P. Verma (b.1942) taught at the Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University. Dr. Verma is the author of Art and Material Culture in the Paintings of Akbar?s Court (1978); Mughal Painters and their Work: A Biographical Survey and Comprehensive Catalogue (1994); Mughal Painter of Flora and Fauna ? Ustad Mansur (1994); Painting the Mughal Experience (2005) and Eighteen Fifty Seven: Revolt and Contemporary Visuals (2007). He has edited three volumes of Art and Culture (1993, 1996 and 2002); Flora and Fauna in Mughal Art (1999) and 1857: An Illustrated History (2008). Ordinary Life in Mughal India (2011) is his recent work. In 1986-87, Dr. Verma worked at the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. as a Fulbright Fellow and in 2005-06 at the Aligarh Muslim University as a Senior Fellow in History (ICHR). Dr. Verma, a practising artist as well, is the recipient of two prestigious awards of the Indian Academy of Fine Arts, Amritsar (1981) and the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata (1982). Currently, Dr. Verma, an Emeritus Fellow in History at Aligarh Muslim University, is working on the project ?Biblical Themes in Indian Art? and the present volume Crossing Cultural Frontiers: Biblical Themes in Mughal Painting (2011) is its outcome.

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