This sumptuously illustrated volume examines the impact of Indian art and culture on Rembrandt (1606–1669) in the late 1650s. By pairing Rembrandt’s twenty-two extant drawings of Shah Jahan, Jahangir, Dara Shikoh, and other Mughal courtiers with Mughal paintings of similar compositions, the book critiques the prevailing notion that Rembrandt “brought life” to the static Mughal art. Written by scholars of both Dutch and Indian art, the essays in this volume instead demonstrate how Rembrandt’s contact with Mughal painting inspired him to draw in an entirely new, refined style on Asian paper—an approach that was shaped by the Dutch trade in Asia and prompted by the curiosity of a foreign culture. Seen in this light, Rembrandt’s engagement with India enriches our understanding of collecting in seventeenth-century Amsterdam, the Dutch global economy, and Rembrandt’s artistic self-fashioning. A close examination of the Mughal imperial workshop provides new insights into how Indian paintings came to Europe as well as how Dutch prints were incorporated into Mughal compositions.

Jahangir : A Connoisseur Of Mughal Art Is Author'S Third Great Work Showing The Character And Personality Of Prince Salim Who Ruled India After The Death Of Akbar. It Tends To Portray The Aesthetic Taste Of Emperor Jahangir As An Unrivalled Connoisseur Of Mughal Art Besides Being A Shrewd Administrator Of Mughal Empire. The Primary Sources Attempts To Present The Artistic Heritage Of His Ancestors Followed By His Own Innovations Known As Muraqqas In Miniature Painting Which Stand Out As Rare Specimens Of Mughal Painting In The Entire Range Of Art History.Jahangir, Who Has Been Depicted As A Great Campaigner Of Wars, Was Also An Avowed Lover Of Natural Phenomena As Also Famous Naturalist Lover Of Mughal Art. What Excelled All Others Styles Of His Reign Was Aspect Of Sophistication And Refinement Which Characterize The Miniatures, Muraqqas Produced In Jahangir'S Atelier.It Was Based On Detailed Analytical Study Of The Trends And Tendencies Patronised By Him. Jahangir Devoted Enough Time To The Study And Enjoyment Of Painting During His Stay At Lahore Which Became A Hub Of Artistic Activity. It Was Here That Most Significant Manuscripts Were Illustrated. Many Noted Artists Worked At Lahore Kingdom. Lahore Became The Second Capital Of The Mughal Empire From Where Radiated Art, Culture, Language And Literature Throughout India.He Was A Man Of Wide Literary Taste, Having Intense Love For Poetry, Music, History, Geography, Architecture, Painting And Fine Arts. A Typical Mughal Culture Would Have Been Impossible Without This Intellectual And Artistic Contribution.

Fifty leaves that form the sumptuous Kevorkian Album, one of the world's greatest assemblages of Mughal art. -- Metropolitan Museum of Art website.

The first specialized critical-aesthetic study to be published on the concept of hybridity in early Mughal painting, this book investigates the workings of the diverse creative forces that led to the formation of a unique Mughal pictorial language. Mughal pictoriality distinguishes itself from the Persianate models through the rationalization of the picture’s conceptual structure and other visual modes of expression involving the aesthetic concept of mimesis. If the stylistic and iconographic results of this transformational process have been well identified and evidenced, their hermeneutic interpretation greatly suffers from the neglect of a methodologically updated investigation of the images’ conceptual underpinning. Valerie Gonzalez addresses this lacuna by exploring the operations of cross-fertilization at the level of imagistic conceptualization resulting from the multifaceted encounter between the local legacy of Indo-Persianate book art, the freshly imported Persian models to Mughal India after 1555 and the influx of European art at the Mughal court in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The author's close examination of the visuality, metaphysical order and aesthetic language of Mughal imagery and portraiture sheds new light on this particular aspect of its aesthetic hybridity, which is usually approached monolithically as a historical phenomenon of cross-cultural interaction. That approach fails to consider specific parameters and features inherent to the artistic practice, such as the differences between doxis and praxis, conceptualization and realization, intentionality and what lies beyond it. By studying the distinct phases and principles of hybridization between the variegated pictorial sources at work in the Mughal creative process at the successive levels of the project/intention, the practice/realization and the result/product, the author deciphers the modalities of appropriation and manipulation of the heterogeneous elements. Her unique