Mughal Painting

Mughal painting

Mughal painting

Main article: Mughal painting Mughal painting is a particular style of Indian painting, generally confined to illustrations on the book and done in miniatures, and which emerged, developed and took shape during the period of the Mughal Empire 16th -19th centuries). Mughal paintings were a unique blend of Indian, Persian and Islamic styles. Because the Mughal kings wanted visual records of their deeds as hunters and conquerors, their artists accompanied them on military expeditions or missions of state, or recorded their prowess as animal slayers, or depicted them in the great dynastic ceremonies of marriages. Rencana utama: Lukisan Mughal Lukisan Mughal adalah satu tokoh tertentu lukisan India, umumnya terbatas untuk gambaran-gambaran pada buku dan dibuat dalam kecil, dan yang timbul, maju dan telah mengambil membentuk semasa tempoh Mughal Empire ke-16 -19th berkurun-kurun). Lukisan-lukisan Mughal adalah satu campuran unik India, gaya-gaya Parsi dan Islam. Kerana raja-raja Mughal rekod-rekod visual menghendaki perbuatan-perbuatan mereka sebagai pemburu-pemburu dan penakluk-penakluk, artis-artis mereka menemani mereka pada ekspidisi tentera misimisi atau negeri, atau merekod keberanian mereka seperti binatang pembunuhpembunuh, atau menggambarkan mereka dalam maha majlis berketurunan perkahwinan.

Akbar's reign (1556-1605) ushered a new era in Indian miniature painting. After he had consolidated his political power, he built a new capital at Fatehpur Sikri where he collected artists from India and Persia. He was the first morarch who established in India an atelier under the supervision of two Persian master artists, Mir Sayyed Ali and Abdus Samad. Earlier, both of them had served under the patronage of Humayun in Kabul and accompanied him to India when he regained his throne in 1555. More than a hundred painters were employed, most of whom were Hindus from Gujarat, Gwalior and Kashmir, who gave a birth to a new school of painting, popularly known as the Mughal School of miniature Paintings. Pemerintahan Akbar (1556 1605) diiringi satu era baru dalam lukisan miniatur India. Selepas dia telah menggabungkan kuasa politiknya, dia membina satu modal baru di Fatehpur Sikri di mana artis-artis terkumpul dia dari India dan Farsi. Dia yang pertama morarch yang ditubuhkan pada India satu atelier di bawah penyeliaan dua artis-artis induk Parsi, Mir Sayyed Ali dan Abdus Samad. Terdahulu, mereka berdua telah menjalankan di bawah naungan bagi Humayun di Kabul dan menemani dia ke India apabila beliau mendapat balik takhtanya pada 1555. ebih daripada satu tukang cat ratus telah diambil bekerja, kebanyakan siapa adalah Hindus daripada Gujarat, Gwalior dan Kashmir, yang memberi satu kelahiran untuk sebuah sekolah baru lukisan, dikenali umum sebagai Mughal School Paintings yang miniatur. One of the first productions of that school of miniature painting was the Hamzanama series, which according to the court historian, Badayuni, was started in 1567 and completed in 1582. The Hamzanama, stories of Amir Hamza, an uncle of the Prophet, were illustrated by Mir Sayyid Ali. The paintings of the Hamzanama are of large size, 20 x 27" and were painted on cloth. They are in the Persian safavi style. Brilliant red, blue and green colours predominate; the pink, eroded rocks and the vegetation, planes and blossoming plum and peach trees are reminiscent of Persia . However, Indian tones appear in later work, when Indian artists were employed.

A folio from the Hamzanama

Satu daripada pengeluaran pertama itu sekolah itu lukisan miniatur adalah siri-siri Hamzanama, yang menurut untuk ahli sejarah mahkamah, Badayuni, telah dimulakan pada 1567 dan siap pada 1582. Hamzanama, cerita-cerita Amir Hamza, seorang bapa saudara Prophet, bergambar oleh Mir Sayyid Ali. Lukisan-lukisan bagi Hamzanama adalah saiz besar, 20 x 27" dan telah dicat atas kain. Mereka dalam bahasa Parsi safavi gaya. Merah terang, warna-warna biru dan hijau menguasai; merah muda, batu-batu terhakis dan tumbuhan, kapal terbang-kapal terbang dan memekar pokok-pokok baik dan pic adalah terkenang-kenang Parsi

After him, Jahangir encouraged artists to paint portraits and durbar scenes. His most talented portrait painters were Ustad Mansur, Abul Hasan andBishandas.

Shah Jahan (1627-1658) continued the patronage of painting. Some of the famous artists of the period were Mohammad Faqirullah Khan, Mir Hashim, Muhammad Nadir, Bichitr, Chitarman, Anupchhatar, Manohar and Honhar. Aurangzeb had no taste for fine arts. Due to lack of patronage artists migrated to Hyderabad in the Deccan and to the Hindu states of Rajasthan in search of new patrons.

. Selepasnya, Jahangir galakkan artis-artis untuk mencatkan potret-potret dan durbar adegan-adegan. Potret paling berbakatnya tukang cat adalah Ustad Mansur, Abul Hasan andBishandas. Shah Jahan (1627 1658) meneruskan naungan lukisan. Beberapa artis-artis terkenal itu tempoh adalah Mohammad Faqirullah Khan, Mir Hashim, Muhammad Nadir, Bichitr, Chitarman, Anupchhatar, Manohar dan Honhar. Aurangzeb tidak mempunyai rasa untuk seni halus. Kerana kekurangan artis-artis naungan berpindah ke Hyderabad dalam Deccan dan ke Hindu menyatakan Rajasthan dalam mencari pelangganpelanggan baru The Hamzanama or Dastan-e-Amir Hamza (Adventures of Amir Hamza) is an important work which narrates the fantastic exploits of Amir Hamza, the uncle of the prophet of Islam. An illustrated manuscript of the Hamzanama, an artistic masterpiece was created about 1558–1573 under the Mughalemperor Akbar. The Hamzanama was designed to augment a storytelling performance. This romance originated more than 1,000 years ago, probably in Persia, and subsequently spread throughout the Islamic world in oral and written forms.

Manuscripts of the Hamzanama The illustrated manuscript created during the Akbar's reign originally comprised 1,400 canvas folios. On one side of most of the folios is a painting, about 54cm x 69cm in area, done in a fusion of Persian and Indian styles. On the other side of most of the folios is Persian text in Nasta'liq script. The folios are ordered, and the text on the back of one folio accompanies the painting on the subsequent folio. Bulk of this folios are to be found in the Austrian Museum of Applied Art (MAK), Vienna, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum, London. The colophon of this manuscript is still missing. None of the folios of this manuscript so far found is signed. According to Badauni and Shahnawaz Khan the work of

preparing the illustrations was supervised initially by Mir Sayyid Ali and subsequently by Abdus Samad. It took fifteen years to complete the work[1]. The Dastan-e-Amir Hamza existed in several manuscript versions. One version by Navab Mirza Aman Ali Khan Ghalib Lakhnavi was printed in 1855 and published by the Hakim Sahib Press, Calcutta, India. This version was later embellished by Abdullah Bilgrami and published from the Naval Kishore Press, Lucknow in 1871.

Hamzanama

The Victoria and Albert Museum has one of the most renowned collections of Mughal art in the world. This is the story of one of the highlights of the collection: the series of paintings done for the Emperor Akbar to illustrate the Adventures of Hamza. The V&A acquired folios from the Hamzanama because of the keenly observant eyes of Sir Caspar Purdon Clarke (1846-1911). He found these paintings, of crucial importance in the development of Mughal painting, stopping up the chinks in the windows of a curiosity-shop in Kashmir, while visiting the region to buy objects for the Museum. The hero of the Hamzanama is based on the character of Amir Hamza, an uncle of the Prophet Muhammad. He became the hero of popular legends told by story-tellers that presented him as an intrepid warrior who travelled the world intending to spread the word of Islam. His adventures were many and varied, as he battled against giants, demons and strange creatures.

Akbar (1542-1605) was the third of the Mughal emperors of Hindustan. The first major project of his newly established royal painting studio was the preparation of the Hamzanama. The series of 1400 paintings on cloth may have been produced in either 12, 14 or 17 volumes, and was directed by two Iranian master artists, Mir Sayyed Ali and Khwaja Abd-as Samad. The work involved over a hundred artists, gilders and bookbinders, and to complete took fifteen years (from 1562 to 1577). A new Mughal style evolved, combining elements from the regional traditions of the Indian subcontinent with an Iranian compositional framework and distinctively Iranian motifs such as ornate architectural settings, finely patterned carpets, roofs and tiles, fairies (peris), flowering cherry and cypress trees. The richness of detail and bold blocks of colour spill over the pages without much linear perspective. The paintings are unusually large, measuring around 74 x 58 cm. About 140 of these illustrations are known to survive and the V&A possesses 27 (including 3 fragments).

Sir Caspar Purdon Clarke, architect, archaeologist and museum director, had been on purchasing expeditions on behalf of the Museum to Turkey, Syria, Greece, Spain, Italy and Germany. He spent two

years as a special commissioner in India, which is when he acquired the Hamzanama. Expeditions to acquire objects were planned meticulously. Clarke had a special uniform made for him and every effort was made to give him an official aura. He was given £1 per day for expenses plus a special daily allowance of £1.10. The Museum’s Indian Section owed its structure to his organising capabilities, and he was Director of the Museum from 1896 to 1905. A practising architect, he also lectured on architecture as well as eastern arts and crafts and arms and armour. The last stage of his distinguished career was as Director of the Metropolitan Museum in New York (1905-11). http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/asia/object_stories/hamzanama/index.html

Painting information Artist

Meister der Hamza-Nâma-Handschrift

Title

Deutsch: Hamza-Nâma-Handschrift, Szene: Mihrdukht schießt ihren Pfeil durch einen Ring

Year

1564-1579

Technique

Deutsch: Papier

Dimensions

Deutsch: 68 × 52 cm

Current location

Deutsch: Sammlung Maria Sarre-Humann

Deutsch:

Notes

Deutsch: Buchmalerei, Meister der Mogulschule

Source

The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by

Permission

B. The Adventures of Hamza The Hamzanama of Akbar incorporates the adventures of Hamza. These stories have existed in oral and written literature for more than a thousand years.[30] Hamza’s home is Sassanian Iran. Battles there between the forces of Islam and the infidels are an important motif of the adventures of Hamza. The battles typically include single combat among warriors sent out to represent the opposing armies that line the battlefield. Islam always wins in the end, with the fate of the infidels being either enthusiastic embrace of the true religion, forced, though sincere, conversion, or

death. Typically in one part of the story Hamza travels to another world, allies with some fantastic creatures, and battles others. Another motif is sudden infatuation of a woman for a man, or a man for a woman. Cross-dressing and various forms of trickery are also common motifs. These motifs have many connections to Persian history and to other oral and written literature that was available to Akbar’s court.[31] The adventures of Hamza have remarkably indistinct temporal, geographic, and narrative boundaries.[32] Historical seeds for Hamza tales may have been the lives of Hamza b. ‘Abd al-Muţţalib and Hamza b. ‘Abd Allah. The former was born in Mecca in 567 G.C. and was the paternal uncle of the last Prophet of Islam, usually written in Islamic works as Mohammed, Peace be Upon Him. This Hamza distinguished himself as a warrior in single combat with polytheists and died fighting for Islam. The latter Hamza lived in Persia about two hundred years later. He too was an Islamic military leader. He led a Persian insurrection against the Abbasid caliph and mounted military campaigns to India and China. The first written text of the adventures of Hamza was reportedly created about 1200 years ago.[33] The adventures of Hamza, set with Hamza's home being Persia, were circulating widely in oral and written Persian in Persia about 1000 years ago. Over subsequent years, the adventures of Hamza spread in oral and written form in languages and places throughout the Islamic world, including Sudan, Turkey, India, Malaysia, and Java. The adventures of Hamza never acquired a canonical narrative expression. Different recensions and tellings of Hamza’s adventures include different characters, different episodes, and different thematic emphases. Abstracted from time, place, storyteller, and listeners, the adventures of Hamza mean not much more than a romance about an ancient, male Islamic warrior-hero named Hamza. Yet in a coffee-house in Turkey about twenty years ago, a traditional Turkish storyteller took almost ten hours to tell the tale of Hamza. [34] He told a story with many but diffuse and jumbled connections to stories told under Hamza's name in different places over the past thousand years. His listeners would undoubtedly recognize this story if he told it again, which he could do, because he knew it well. Akbar was familiar with the adventures of Hamza as a traditional oral performance. Akbar’s court historian recorded that, after an elephant hunt in the evening in 1564, Akbar: having ensnared the intended prey and satisfied the cup of desire, sat upon that exalted throne, and graciously commanded those present to be seated; then for the sake of delight and pleasure he listened for some time to Darbar Khan's stories of Amir Hamza.[35] Recent scholarship indicates that 1564 was about six years into the fifteen-year project of producing the Hamzanama. [36] Since the Hamzanama was a monumental work, use of part of it in storytelling would have been noteworthy. That the performance took place while the Hamzanama was being produced suggests that telling the adventures of Hamza was a common event. The gathering of the court and the anticipation of the effects of the storytelling also suggest familiarity with the story, as does the lack of concern for narrative closure in listening. The prelude to

the storytelling – the action, risk, and success of an elephant hunt – probably informed the choice of telling the adventures of Hamza. Akbar and his court were familiar with a wide range of literature, both oral and written. Akbar had a large imperial library with separate sections for Hindu, Persian, Greek, Kashmirian, and Arabic books. Persian books included Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh epic, Sadi’s Bustan and Gulistan, works by Jami, while Indian works included the Sanskrit epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata Purana, and famous love stories and fables. There were also books on mathematics, science, Yoga, and history.[37] Akbar himself could not read, but he regularly enjoyed having books read to him.[38] Moreover, a court storyteller, Darbar Khan, was closely associated with Akbar. [39] This suggests that Akbar regularly heard recitals of traditional oral literature, which was a thriving popular art form in Persia at that time. Akbar’s investment in the adventures of Hamzanama, although materially enormous like Shah Tahmasp’s earlier investment in the Shahnameh, differed greatly in sense. The adventures of Hamza are adaptable, popular stories that have successfully encompassed many different persons and places. The Shahnameh, also known as “The Book of Kings,” is an Iranian national epic. Written by Ferdowsi in Persia in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, it has a canonical text that serves as a standard source of Iranian cultural memory and pride.[40] Shah Tahmasp ordered the production of a magnificent illustrated manuscript of the Shahnameh about thirty years before Akbar initiated work on the Hamzanama. Shah Tahmasp’s Shahnameh is an artifact of Iranian national greatness.[41] Akbar’s Hamzanama is much more universally personal. Understanding Akbar’s investment in the adventures of Hamza requires appreciation for universal bodily values in making sense. http://www.galbithink.org/sense-s3.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_painting