Mughal India
The first Mughal emperor, Babur, conquered northern India in AD
1526. He was descended from Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, a
lineage acknowledged in the earliest Mughal painting in the British
Museum, ‘Humayun’s Garden Party’. This work was repainted during
the reign of Jahangir (1605-27) so that the ‘guests’ would all
represent descendants of Tamerlane.
The reigns of Babur’s grandson, Akbar, and his successors,
Jahangir and Shah Jahan, from the mid-sixteenth to the
mid-seventeenth century witnessed the birth and development of the
new Mughal style of art and architecture. This combined local
Indian and Iranian forms. European prints and enamels also
influenced Mughal painting and metalwork.
Akbar and Jahangir had a preference for naturalism in art and
the jade terrapin in the British Museum is a vivid example of
Mughal realism. This very large jade sculpture faithfully
represents the terrapin, which is native to the waters of the
Ganges and Yamuna Rivers. It is thought to have been produced
for Jahangir between 1600 and 1605.
Because the Mughals pushed their conquest of India southward and
gained control of the Deccan, the states of Central India, their
wealth grew dramatically. Portraits of the Mughal royal
family depict them wearing gold armbands, turban ornaments and
other jewellery inlaid with rubies, diamonds and emeralds and
enamelled on the reverse.
A jewelled and enamelled gold pendant in the British Museum
exemplifies this taste. The greatest patron of jewels and fine
jewellery was Shah Jahan, the builder of the Taj Mahal.
Image caption: Manohar (attributed
to),
Emperor Jahangir weighing his son Khurram in gold, an
album-painting in gouache on paper
Mughal dynasty, around AD 1615. India