Unit – II (A) Mughal School of Miniature Painting / Feature of Mughal School
The Main features of Mughal School of Miniature Painting
• Historical Scenes: During Akbar’s rule, maximum numbers of historical scenes were made e.g. illustration of the manuscript related to historical scene namely ‘Kissa-Amir Hamza’. Mostly historical scenes were painted during Mughal School.
• Linear beauty: When we look at the portrait of Mughal style, we become familiar with the importance of beautiful, thin and thick fine lines. The lines are so fine that even the minutest details are clearly visible.
• Border Decoration: All the Mughal paintings are decorated with borders which are ornamented. In some paintings, the borders dominate the painting.
• Profile Faces: Profile Faces is the main feature of the Mughal style. Whether the figures are frontal or in side pose, the faces are always in profile.
• Garments: The female figures are shown wearing transparent odhanis, while the male figures are shown wearing Angarakhas and Churidar Pyjamas alongwith decorative turbans. Ornamental decoration stories are seen in the garments.
• Religious Themes: Depiction of religious themes like The Ramayana, The Mahabharata, The Nala Damyanti themes and Panchtantra stories is there in the paintings.
• Depiction of Nature: Nature has been depicted so beautifully that even each leaf has been painted separately. Trees, plants, leaves, rivers, mountains etc. have been depicted gracefully.
• Colour Scheme: Mostly natural colours have been beautifully used. Earlier paintings had flat colours, but later on, depth with the help of shading was shown.
• Calligraphy: Calligraphy was done in black colour in most of the paintings. Artists wrote their names beautifully also.
• Depiction of Animals and Birds: Ustad Mansoor was the main bird painter. ‘Falcon on a Bird-Rest’ is the one of his best paintings. Animals and Birds were depicted beautifully in Mughal Paintings. Camel fights, elephant fights etc. were
depicted beautifully. Other animals like goats, horses, tigers, lions etc. were also depicted gracefully.
Salient features of Mughal school of miniature panting
• The art of court, secular and eclectic in its character.
• The use of calligraphy with artist name.
• The portraiture-delineation of fine likeness.
• The representation of minute details.
• The depiction of nature as a special study (fauna and flora).
• The faces are usually painted profile (EK-chasm)
• The use of mineral and natural colours with silver and golden.
• Painted border decoration used in Arabic script.
• The delicacy is maintained in figures and architectural forms.
• The depiction of court scenes, hunting and battle scenes, music and dancing scenes, processions and wedding scenes etc.
• The depiction of foreign and religious stories especially Islamic and Indian epics like The Ramayana, The Mahabharata, Nal- Damyanti etc.
• The Naturalistic treatment of landscape borrowed from European paintings.
• The use of stripling (Pardaz) and delicate shading.
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