Mughal paintings are particular style of paintings practiced during the Mughal period. These paintings were usually done in miniatures and are found in the illustrations of the books and this could be said as a unique blend of various styles of paintings such as Indian style, Persian style and Islamic style.

The period of Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great could be said as a new era of Mughal paintings. After shifting his capital to Fatehpur Sikri was greatly interested in collecting paintings and so he gathered the artists from India and Persia. The two artists who were brought to India along with Humayun from Persia were Mir Sayyed Ali and Abdus Samad. Under their supervision many painters were put to work. New school of painting was started during the 16^th century and this was called as the Mughal School of Miniature Paintings.

Mughal paintings depicted animals and plants in their real surrounding. They resembled Persian miniatures. The illustrations were found on the memoires of the Mughal emporers such as Padshahnama. This is a record of the history of the times. They give details about the life of people and rulers of that time. Those illustrations reflect the court life and hunting of wild animals and birds and also have some pictures of battles fought during those times.

Hamzanama series was the oldest of its kind of the memoirs and this was started in 1567 and completed in 1582. It contains the stories of Amir Hamza and this was illustrated by the Persian artist Mir Sayyid Ali. They were painted on cloth in the Persian safavi style in brilliant color shades. The natural colors taken from plants, flowers, vegetables and fruits were used. During the time of Mughal emperor Jahangir there were some talented painters in his court named Ustad Mansur, Abul Hasan and Bishandas.

During the time of Shah Jahan the paintings were more cold and rigid. The musical parties, gardens, people in love and ascetics became the theme of images. Mir Hashim, Muhammad Nadir, Faquirulla, Manohara and Honhar were some of the painters in his court. Aurangazeb was not interested in art and artistic works. So Mughal paintings started to decline during his times. Many painters lost their jobs. There was a revival of Mughal art during the time of Muhammad Shah Rangeela from 1719 to 1748. But later with the incoming of British East India Company and the introduction of Rajput paintings, Mughal paintings slowly disappeared.

However, still Mughal paintings are created by the artists living in Rajasthan region. The original work was copied by the skillful painters of these regions. Some modern works have also been created in the similar lines of the traditional paintings. The bright colors such as red, black, violet, green and blue are used in these paintings. Rafi Uddin is one of the greatest painters who have received many awards for his talented works. His younger brother Saif Uddin is also recognized and brought to limelight. Tilak Gitai, Muhammed Usman, Ram Gopal Vijayvargiya, Mohammed Luqman and Kishan Mali Sharma are some of the artists producing this famous art form.

Article Posted By : Sumazla  On January 24, 2012lView All Articles

Suhaina Mazhar is a freelance content writer and blogger and has written thousands of original articles. http://sumazla.blogspot.com is her blog.

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Mughal Paintings , mughal art , mughal painting , mughal art form