miniature painting: MINIATURE PAINTINGS

Ragaputra Sarang
detail, Padshahnama, Mughal

Jaimuni questions Markandeya, Garwhal c. 1785, 17.8 x 24.7 cm

Vasant Rangini
Vasant Rangini, Subimperial Mughal, early 17th century. (detail)

Nainsukh
Musicians playing a raga for Raja Balwant Singh of Jasrota, c1745-50, by Nainsukh .From the exhibition: Maharaja: The Splendour of India's Royal Courts

Lady holding a lotus

Shri Saraswati

Road to Krishna
The Road to Krishna, an illustration from The Krishna Sudama Series. India (Garwhal, Pahari), c.1775-90.

The swing
The Swing. Opaque watercolour on paper, in the Pahari style. Kangra, India, c.1790.

Payag (active c. 1595-1655)
Emperor Humayun seated in a landscape (detail), Mughal, c. 1650

Emperor Humayun

Procession

detail, Padshahnama, Mughal

Mounted on horse

Listening to Music at Evening, from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Ascetics

Gazing at the moon
An illustration from a Baramasa: The Month of Chait, Jaipur, late 18th century.

Akbarnama

Ladies at night. Mughal, 1707-12,

Shamsa (rosette) with name and titles of Emperor Shah Jahan, Mughal, 17th c, India.

This shamsa is an exquisite example of the art of illumination in the Mughal period. The profusion and gem-like detail of the floral decoration of the rosette, set along scrolling vines, can be traced to the illumination of the late Timurid period. Known as the international Timurid style, this style features veritable gardens of flowers in its illumination. It spread as far as Ottoman lands, epitomized by the sukufe floral style of Ottoman illumination. Gold and lapis lazuli are used to rich effect here, also echoing earlier Timurid and Safavid illumination techniques.

Under Jahangir and his successor, Shah Jahan, the number of manuscripts produced by the imperial atelier was greatly reduced, resulting in fewer, and generally more elaborate, designs and manuscripts such as this.

Sage Kapila
Sage Kapila in his Hermitage, Illustration from the Ramayana, Kangra or Garhwal.This miniature resembles some of the cosmographical paintings that are a feature of Indian art. The sage, like the innermost Self, sits at the centre of all things, in a state ofKaivalya (isolation, detachment).

Ramayana, War Council, Guler, Himachal Pradesh

Radha Krishna

Seitz collection

Rajasthani miniature

Horses, Padshahnama, Mughal

(Detail) Shah Jahan Hunting, Padshahnama, c. 1645

Poetic simplicity

Shri Ganesha

Khwaja Khizr Khan

This 17th Century Mughal painting depicts the legendary muslim saint, Khwaja Khizr travelling on a fish, dressed in green robes and turban.

In Islam, the colour green has associations with spirituality. The Prophet Muhammad PBUH was said to have favoured green, and in the Koran it is written that the inhabitants of Heaven will wear robes of fine green silk.