Kings, Courtiers, and Women
Until the sixteenth century, there are few realistic representations
of Indian rulers or courtiers. However, the early Mughals showed
a new and restless inquisitiveness about man and nature, focusing
their attention on the individual, the particular, and the idiosyncratic.
Akbar (r. 1556–1605) enthusiastically nurtured the naturalistic
techniques that his artists were adapting from European prints and
paintings. Soon, the finely finished individual portrait became
valued in its own right. Accomplished individual or small group
portraits of the ruler, princes, nobility, and courtiers, as well
as paintings of women or other subjects of interest, would be mounted
in lavishly decorated borders and assembled in bound albums for
the enjoyment of the emperor and his family, and to give away as
gifts. Following the Mughal example, Rajput rulers also commissioned
portraits of themselves, but these often referred to older notions
of idealized rulers and paid less attention to observable, individualized
traits.
In the nineteenth century, fine portraiture continued to be produced,
often under increasing Western influence. Sometimes the subjects
were the newly ascendant British governors, or nabobs. By the middle
of the century, however, the art of portraiture was in general decline,
and it was replaced soon after, except at the most conservative
courts, by photography.
|