Miniature Painting in Contemporary South Asian Art Team 2: Ayesha, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Miniature Painting in Contemporary South Asian Art

Team 2: Ayesha, Gerald, Jade, Jia Xian, Kaie

Content

• History of Mughal Empire
• Timeline
• Thesis
• Traditional Mughal Paintings
• Contemporary Miniature

Paintings

• Comparison
• Conclusion

History Of Mughal Empire

Background, Context, Impact of Colonization

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Contemporary The origins of South Asian miniature art can be traced back to eleventh and twelfth century India. The earliest examples of miniature painting are the illustrated Buddhist manuscripts of the Palas from eastern India and the Jainist textsfrom western India. During the fifteenth century, influences from Persian painting started to appear in western Indian manuscripts, such as the use of ultra-marine blue and gold colours. “https://www.guggenheim.org/arts-curriculum/resource-unit/no-country-contemporary-art-for-south-and-southeast-asia” http://artradarjournal.com/2013/12/08/what-is-contemporary-miniature-art-art-radar-explains/ Maybe we can do a short comparison between ancient and contemporary miniature painting Explore influences in 21st century art https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzTbYkp_FRg

https://teachartwiki.wikispaces.com/Mughal+and+Rajput+Painting+16th-18th+Century https://prezi.com/gzmm2gz1ygvv/miniature-painting-in-the-middle-east-south-asia/ http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/07/entertainment/la-et-pakistan-miniatures7-2010apr07

Hi Sujatha, Sorry for the lack of context. The team was discussing that, in the modern context, how and what separates miniature paintings from the authentic traditional “miniature paintings” seen in the Mughal Empire compared to the Contemporary and modern Mughal Art. So we researched on Contemporary Miniature Paintings in the recent century and most of them seem to follow economic reasons for its practical size as compared to the large-scale mural paintings. Thus, our team’s thesis dwells on the fact that through time, Miniature Paintings has changed its art style due to its patrons and/or lack thereof.

Hi Sujatha, Sorry for the lack of context. The team was discussing that, in the modern context, how and what separates miniature paintings from the authentic traditional “miniature paintings” seen in the Mughal Empire compared to the Contemporary and modern Mughal Art. We were comparing how it has evolved over time through Function, Art Style, Motifs and Expression. This is affected by the backing of an emperor in the traditional period and the subsequent lack of one in the Contemporary period; Function/ Expression: Traditional Mughal Miniature Paintings document how the emperor ruled and artists creativity were bound to the ruler’s expectations VS Contemporary Miniature Paintings has evolved into more liberal, interpretive and abstract pieces due to artists not being bound to the standards of an emperor (decline of a monarch); and thus has become more commercialized and less personal. Art Style/ Motifs: Traditional Mughal Miniature Paintings depict the influences from their time ( Persian motifs, from Pala empire, and incorporations of Jesuit MIssionaries after visit to india). Paintings were flat and lack perspective. VS Contemporary MIniature Paintings show artists used select motifs from Mughal period with ‘arches’ and/ or calligraphy along with a flat style of painting. They are also influenced by art European art movements like cubism, expressionism and naturalism. Form/ Size: Traditional Mughal Miniature Paintings are small so it is to be kept intimately for the Emperor whereas VS Contemporary Miniature Paintings are now a commercial gimmick and doesn’t really have a meaning/reason behind the form of it being “miniature” Thus, our team’s thesis dwells on the fact that “through time, Miniature Paintings has changed its art style due to its patrons and/or lack thereof.”

Context for Thesis Idea -

Thesis: Miniature Paintings have evolved over time with respect to Function, Art Style, Motifs and Expression and the primary reason is the backing of an emperor in the traditional period and the subsequent lack of one in the Contemporary period. Argument for Thesis - 1. Function/Expression: The primary function of Miniature paintings in the Mughal period were to document the accounts of the emperor’s rule in the form

• f autobiographical books like the ‘Akbarnama’ with collections of miniature paintings. These served to reflect the life of the Ruler in

court and dominantly represented the ideals of the ruler, more than the artist himself. There was artistic freedom, but the artist was still bound to the ruler’s expectations since the paintings were made for him. In contemporary paintings, with the decline of a monarch or empire, the function of the miniature paintings has evolved since there is no patron to set any guidelines. Hence the form of art has evolved into a more liberal, interpretative and abstract piece since the artists have more freedom to choose their motifs and are not bound by any standards of the Emperor. This however has led to paintings becoming more commercialized and less personal since they were created with the purpose of being put on the market. 2.

• 2. Art Style/Motifs: In the Mughal period, Miniature paintings dominantly depicted Persian motifs with some influences from the Pala

empire and later incorporated motifs of Jesuit Missionaries after their visit to India. The style was very flat with layers, and lacked

• perspective. Most of the miniature paintings were similar, and showed figures in court, animals, flowers, gardens, general life in court
• activities. Christian imagery and western style was later incorporated for a secular and more inclusive outlook

In the Contemporary paintings, artists used select motifs from the Mughal period like ‘arches’ or calligraphy, and also the flat style of

• painting. However, through the years, their paintings have also been influenced by art movements like cubism, expressionism and
• naturalism. [Enter Kaie’s examples] So its highly interpretive.
• 3. Form/Size/Medium: Earlier, the purpose of keeping it small was specifically to keep it intimate for the Emperor and make it suitable to

compile in the form of a book. Now, its probably just a commercial gimmick or a budget choice. There is no real meaning/reason behind the form of it being ‘miniature’.....(Oh wait, if its small it can be personal to the buyer so...umm..idk?)

Timeline

THESIS :

Throughout time, the purpose of Miniature Paintings has evolved

Traditional Mughal Paintings

• ( you can feel free to replace the photos !!)

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Ayesha’s notes:

• Relationship between Mughal Empire and Portugese India - Harmonious integration of Christianity and Islam in Art - A new Secular surge?
• Mughal Royal Lineage - > Babur ->Humayun->Akbar->Jehangir->Shahjahan->Aurangzeb
• Mughal Empire started with Babur but he didn’t do jack for Miniature Paintings - All started with Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan.
• Babur’s Reign - Famous for lavish architecture, mughal gardens - walled spaces filled with flowers, pools, birds, and shaded walkways.
• Humayun - went on military exile and learned to paint. In 1551 brought 2 Persian painters, Mir Sayyid Ali and Abdus Samad, back to India.
• Akbar loved cultural art - paid close attention to output of artwork. Jehangir and Shahjahan followed suit. Jehangir got too western.
• By the time of Shah Alam II (1759–1806), the art of Mughal painting had lost its glory. By that time, other schools of Indian painting had

developed, -> Rajput kingdoms of Rajputana, Rajput painting and in the cities ruled by the British East India Company, the Company style under Western influence. Late Mughal style often shows increased use of perspective and recession under Western influence.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_painting

• Akbar and Jehangir dealt with the Mughal Empire differently - very inspired by Western Art and after 1580, profound influence of western art

seen not only in Islamic paintings, but in places of worship like Durgahs -> What does this imply?how was it perceived by muslims?

• Artists - Mughal painting flourished in late 16th and early 17th centuries by master artists such as Basawan, Lal, Daswanth,[13] and Miskin.
• Another influence on the evolution of style during Akbar's reign was Kesu Das, who understood and developed "European techniques of

rendering space and volume".[14]

• Govardhan was a noted painter during the reigns of Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan.

Mughal painting generally involved a group of artists, one to decide the composition, the second to actually paint, and the third to focus on portraiture, executing individual faces.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_painting#Artists

• Actual Size of these miniatures? - Mughal miniatures were small (many not more than a few square inches), brightly colored, and highly detailed

paintings mostly used to illustrate manuscripts and art books. Despite their tiny sizes, they are incredibly precise, with some lines painted using brushes composed of a single hair. Prince with a Falcon (1600–05), for instance, is roughly 6 inches tall and 3 inches wide, but manages to trace the titular bird’s every feather; the wisps of the prince’s hair; and an entire menagerie of fluttering birds and hunting lions decorating his tunic. These miniatures valued color and extreme detail over shading and realistic perspective, giving figures a static appearance, frozen in positions that emphasize their two-dimensionality.

Possible Arguments for Thesis Ideas 1. Miniature Paintings in Contemporary South Asian Art through its inclusiveness and secularity, shows how religions (Christianity and Islam) may have been perceived to be different in methods of propagation and function, but share similar ideals and motifs.- a. Visual Analysis of an Ancient Mughal Painting vs Church art? Western Painting - similarities and differences in function, aesthetic, motifs, art style. b. A separate V.A of Contemporary Miniature Painting combining traditional mughal motifs and western style c. Contextual Analysis - cite a book on Secular Art/ Mughal motifs/ Western Influences/ Islam vs Christianity d. Reinforce thesis with argument 2. Something about the painters’ point of view?? The European motifs on Contemporary Miniature Paintings was a choice

• f expression from Artists more than Emperors themselves? --- This gonna be hard to prove, but its an interesting idea.

a. Kesu Das under Akbar’s reign -- understood and developed "European techniques of rendering space and volume".[14] b. Western painters in Jehangir’s court - western ideals from artists themselves with no intervention from ruler 3. While it is refreshing to see integrated art style in Indian court painting, did miniature paintings become too western in Jehangir’s reign that the Mughal touch was lost? Could this influence be a reason why Mughal paintings no longer exist today? a. Jehangir specifically employed a western painter - decline in mughal influence? 4. Story point of view of Paintings? Are they fiction? Or real accounts?

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INTRODUCTION TO MINIATURE PAINTINGS

Origins

• Can be traced back to eleventh and twelfth century India.
• The earliest examples of miniature painting
• Illustrated Buddhist manuscripts of the Palas from eastern India
• Jainist texts from western India.

Two sizes of formats

• Large-scale mural : decorate walls of temples and royal palaces
• Miniatures : Illustrated the stories of both sacred and secular manuscripts
• Portable
• Manuscript paintings brought the world attention
• played fundamental role in development in visual culture of South Asia
• for patreon (royal patreon)

LOCAL ORIGINS: PALA EMPIRE ART

The Pala Empire

◉ Ruling dynasty in Bihar and Bengal India from 8th-12th Century AD ◉ Rulers were patrons of Mahayana Buddhism ◉ Pala missionaries responsible for spread of Buddhism to Tibet ◉ Majority of surviving Pala art is in the form of metalwork and sculpture ◉ Earliest instance of manuscript painting in India ◉ Influence on future Mughal paintings: style and patronage

Role of Manuscript Painting in Pala Society

◉ Painted on palm-leaf pages ◉ Compiled into folio manuscripts ◉ Patronage system ◉ Painted by Buddhist monks, with Pala kings as donors ◉ Commissioning of manuscripts was a way for Pala kings to gain virtue, a key aspect of Mahayana Buddhism

White Tara, Folio from a dispersed Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom) Manuscript, early 12th Century. (7 x 41.9cm) Met Museum, New York

Dimensionality: based around sculpture

◉ Pala paintings incorporated elements of depth, scale and dimensionality, similar to their sculptures

Green Tara Dispensing Boons to Ecstatic Devotees: Folio from a Manuscript of the Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom), early 12th Century (6.4 x 4.9 cm) Met Muesum, New York Buddha Shakyamuni India, Bihar; Pala period (c.8th - 12th century), late 9th - early 10th century Schist

• H. 28 1/4 in. (71.8 cm)

How do the Pala fit into the big picture?

◉ Pala manuscript art ≠ miniature paintings ◉ Although similar in size, they did not share the same purpose miniatures did ◉ However! Precedent for royalty commissioning small paintings for limited purposes (virtue) ◉ Mughal miniature art would deviate in style from the Persian style of Central Asia/Ottoman miniatures ◉ Many of these deviations would originate from the Pala style

Influences on Mughal miniature art: flora/fauna

Facial depictions

Mughal had a tendency to favour side profiles and more complex facial details

Dimensionality

The visual impact of miniature paintings

Mughal Empire (1526 - 1858)

History of Encounters, Trade and Missionaries

Mughal Empire (1526 - 1858)

Miniature Paintings

During the fifteenth century, influences from Persian painting started to appear in western Indian manuscripts

• Use of ultramarine blue and gold colours
• The style of miniature painting had been developed and refined at Mughal court
• It was spread to other Indian royal courts
• Narratives are illustrated in various manners and contributed large output of illustrated texts
• Usually in religious texts
• Based on the written word that is central to various religions in South Asia (Buddhism, Hinduism, Jain, Islam)
• Rich secular literary tradition
• Tales of rulers, romances, dramas, royal histories, Hindu and Muslim mythologies, morality tales, mystical poetry.
• also folios of court life, royal portraits, exotic flora and fauna, hunting and garden scenes
• Miniature paintings are brightly coloured and full of detail

Thus, Indian miniatures became highly sought works of art

Mughal Empire (1526 - 1858)

Miniature Paintings

Royal patrons encouraged their painters to assimilate aesthetic principles from the illusionistic vocabulary of Renaissance art

• New emphasis : Linear perspective, naturalistic modelling, individual portraiture
• There is an encounter between east and west

However, Mughal artists maintained a strong sense of continuity with the Indian traditions in terms of both form and content Golden age of Mughal Empire (1556 - 1658)

• Paintings continue to be in the form of the book
• Later, Mughal paintings followed similar models
• But became more static, losing innovative spontaneity that characterized the classic Mughal sensibility.

Miniature Paintings

The British succeeded the Mughals as rulers of India

• They Introduced values that privileged western conception of "fine art" over "applied art"
• There was a new hierarchy for art:
• Traditional painting and most other indigenous art forms were relegated to the level of craft
• History of contemporary miniature painting is thus, rooted in the history of colonialism in India

(1872) under British patronage, miniature painting was viewed as yet another exotic product,

• Local artists were encouraged to copy portraits of the Great Mughals alongside dancing girls with hookahs and other

stereotypical scenes of the decadent east

Mughal Empire

MINIATURE PAINTINGS IN CONTEMPORARY SOUTH ASIA

Miniature Paintings

comparisons?

Mughal Art ( 1982 )

Bashirt Ahmad (student), last traditional master miniaturists in the country, succeeded in introducing it as a major subject in the fine arts department of the National College of Arts (NCA).

• program became most successful in school
• work of graduating students remain in demand from international dealers and collectors

Mughal Art ( Now)

** However, in order to survive within a contemporary art institution, miniature painting had to be modified and "modernized"

• traditional master-disciple relationship had been sacrificed
• instead of intensive apprenticeship that formerly unfolded over decades
• became condensed into two to four academic years

Essential techniques of Mughal musawwari have been disseminated

• material knowledge has also gone a process of abbreviation
• students are no longer taught the traditional way of preparing wasli paper
• use cheap mass-produced paper
• knowledge of pigment preparation departed from tradition
• zinc white (safaida) continues to be used as the vehicle opacity for all pigments but students rely on imported commercial watercolors
• current students lack exposure to traditional material preparation
• led indifference toward the craft
• patrons recent focus on contemporary practice has also served to widen the gap between traditional practice and its current manifestations
• in global art economy, miniaturists are now encouraged to invoke "ethnic" aesthetics
• however, they continue to be influenced by and judged according to an established European canon

TIMELINE OF ARTISTIC INFLUENCES

HUMAYUN, 1530-1556

AKBAR, 1556-1605

SHAJAHAN, 1628-1659

Contemporary Miniature Paintings

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“

Kaie will paste his slides by the end of tonight.

“ Comparisons

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Comparisons

Function/ Expression

• Art Style/ Motifs
• Form/ Size
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Conclusion

◉

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References