Lahore University of Management Sciences
HIST 315 - MODERN AND MUGHAL MINIATURE PAINTINGS
Spring 2017
Instructor
Room No.
Office Hours
Email
Telephone
Secretary/TA
TA Office Hours
Course URL (if any)
Nadhra Shahbaz Naeem Khan
8339
[email protected]
Course Basics
Credit Hours
Lecture(s)
Recitation/Lab (per week)
Tutorial (per week)
Course Distribution
Core
Elective
Open for Student Category
4
Nbr of Lec(s)
Per Week
Nbr of Lec(s)
Per Week
Nbr of Lec(s)
Per Week
2
Duration
110 min
Duration
Duration
No
Yes
All
Course Description
Modern-day Pakistani artists like Shazia Sikander, Saira Waseem, Aisha Khalid, Imran
Qureshi, Nusra Latif and many more, mostly trained in Lahore, are acclaimed worldwide
for their phenomenal artistic oeuvres. Called ‘Modern Miniatures,’ their works of art
carry many more dimensions to the traditional practices such as digital animations, sitespecific installations and videos. They are, nevertheless, rooted in the traditional Mughal
miniatures created as illustrations of texts or as individuals leaves in muraqqas (albums),
commissioned by emperors Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan. Familiarity with the
religious, social and political contexts of Mughal miniatures is essential to examine and
appreciate these modern works of art. This course aims to equip you with the necessary
aesthetic and visual vocabulary as well as the historical context of these works through a
detailed study of each phase of the development of Mughal miniature paintings.
We will start with Akbar (r. 1556-1605) who set up his royal karkhana (atelier) under
two Persian masters, Abdul-Samad and Mir Sayyed Ali, but also hired local Indian artists
who had served various Sultanate rulers of Turkish and Persian origins, as well as Hindu,
Buddhist and Jain patrons. What emerged as a synthesis of these diverse aesthetic streams
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can be seen in the series of manuscripts dealing with literary texts such as Tuti-Nama,
Hamza-Nama and Razm-Nama, and historical texts like the Babur-Nama. Paintings that
feature Akbar’s court culture, spread over almost fifty years, also manifest multifarious
strands of style and essence. During the last phase of his rule, Flemish and German
engravings brought by Jesuit missionaries to his court started influencing the miniature
painting practices. For this we will compare some Mughal and Europeans works of art to
see the extent of borrowing and lending of visual imagery in both cases.
Jahangir took over in 1605 and ushered Mughal miniature painting towards a new era of
realism where instead of the workshop production, individual artists with different
specializations were encouraged to paint the entire miniature in one hand. We therefore
find painters like Ustad Mansur entitled Nadir-ul Asr (Rarity of the Age), excelling in the
rendition of only flora and fauna. Jahangir also introduced a new genre of allegorical
paintings that are laden with metaphors of power, control and the emperor’s preeminence as a Divine mandate. More than any other, the visual and symbolic vocabulary
of these Jahangiri paintings act as a lexicon for most modern miniatures.
Shah Jahan succeeded Jahangir and ascended the throne in 1628. With him came
formalization and a preference for excessive decorative elements in miniature paintings at
the cost of naturalism. The forty-six miniatures of Shah Jahan’s illustrated Padshahnama
(now in the Royal Library of the Winsor Castle) are among the greatest art works
dateable to this period showing court and hunting scenes, battles and conquests, and
wedding processions of the princes Dara Shikoh and Shah Shuja.
Modern miniatures borrow heavily from the Mughal miniatures in terms of technique,
format and imagery but their contemporary political and social overtones add a unique
layer to their intended meanings and their reception in modern day society. This process
stretches the imagery over two temporalities – the distant past and the immediate present,
challenging the viewer’s imagination and power of analysis. To bridge the gap between
the meanings these works of art elicited for their patrons and viewers, and how we
engage with them today, it is important to compare the historical, social, cultural,
political and religious dynamics that shaped them and affect our sensibilities. This course
will equip you with the visual and textual vocabularies to decode the allegories and
inferences to historical events embedded in modern works of art inspired by the
traditional stock of images, symbols and their specific meanings.
Objectives
- By the end of the course you will be familiar with:
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The process that goes into creating a miniature painting and the basics
analytical tools to appreciate it
The chronological and historical development of Mughal miniature paintings
from the 16th and the 17th centuries to the present
The stylistic and thematic differences of Mughal miniature paintings
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commissioned by the three most important Mughal patrons
The political, religious, social and cultural contexts of both Mughal and
modern miniature paintings
The appropriation of historical images in modern works of art
The analytical tools of modern art historians and their impact on art historical
discourse
Practical Knowledge:
 During the second week of this course, we will visit at least one miniature studio
in Lahore to help you understand the process of making a traditional miniature.
This includes making a vasli (special paper base) and brushes, drawing the
composition, the application of pigments and gold and silver leaves and the final
stage of burnishing the finished painting.
 A second visit will be to an art gallery exhibiting modern miniatures.
 You will be required to visit other galleries and museums on your own for your
research paper.
Reading Material
All readings including books and articles will be uploaded on LMS as we proceed.
Course Evaluation
Attendance: 10%
Class Participation 20% (including workshop and art gallery visits)
Quizzes: 20%
Research Paper: 30% (2000-2500 words)
Final Exam: 20% (no midterm exam)
 Attendance is mandatory and more than four absents will mean an “F”
 Class participation carries considerable weight therefore you are expected to
answer questions from previous topics covered in class and the assigned reading
material, in each session
 Quizzes will be unannounced
 You are advised to take notes during lectures as only the image slides will be
uploaded on lms  Research paper of approximately 4500-5000 word will be due after the mid term.
Topic approval is mandatory
Exams: Exam questions will be drawn from the material covered during lectures and
assigned readings. The final exam will be a short essay on a topic chosen from
class material. Classroom Management Policy
 Cell phones to be switched off  Students walking out of the classroom in the middle of the session to be
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
marked absent Classroom door to be closed five minutes after the session begins. Lectures 1, 2: Introduction to Elements of Art
Lecture 3: Introduction to Pakistani modern miniature painting through slides
Lectures 4, 5: Introduction to the Persian, Jain palm-leaf and Sultanate miniature
paintings
Chughtai, Abdullah, Painting during the Sultanate period. Lahore: Kitabkhana-iNaurus, 1963.
Goswamy, B. N., “In the Sultan’s Shadow: Pre-Mughal Painting in and around
Delhi.” In Delhi through Ages. Essays in Urban History, Culture and Society
edited by R.E. Frykenberg. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1986, 129-142.
Schmitz, Barbara, Mughal and Persian Paintings and Illuminated Manuscripts in
the Raza Library, Rampur. Delhi, IGNCA, 2006.
---------, “Persian Influences on Indian painting”. Encyclopedia Iranica Vol. XIII,
Fasc.1 (2004) 65-76.
Lectures 6-8: Akbar’ atelier, literary and historical illustrated texts, their subject
matter, style and comparison with Persian paintings and Jain manuscripts
Das, A.K., “An introductory note on the Emperor Akbar’s Ramayana and its
miniatures”, In Facets of Indian Art, edited by R. Skelton and et al. London:
Victoria and Albert Museum, 1986.
Ahmed, Khalid Anis, Intercultural Encounter in Mughal Miniatures: (MughalChristian Miniatures). Lahore: National College of Arts Publication, 1995.
Ehnbom, Daniel, “A Leaf of the Qissa-i-Amir Hamza in the University of
Virginia Art Museum and some thought on Early Mughal painting.” In Art of
Mughal India: Essays in Honour of Robert Skelton, edited by Crill and Koch, 2835.
M.C. Beach, The Grand Mogul: Imperial painting in India 1600-1660,
(Massachusetts: Sterling and Francine Art Institute, 1978).
Ebba Koch, Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology. Selection of Essays, (New Delhi:
Oxford University Press, 2001).
S.P. Verma, Mughal Painters and their work, (New Delhi: Oxford University
Press, 1994).
Guy and Swallow, “The Art of the Mughals”, in Arts of India 1550-1900
(London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1990), pp. 56-107.
Lectures 9, 10: Jahangir’s naturalistic court paintings
Koch, Ebba. Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology: Collected Essays, New Delhi:
Oxford University Press, 2001.
Okada, Amina. Imperial Mughal Painters, Paris: Flammarion, 1992.
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Lectures 11-14: Jahangir’s allegorical paintings – critical analysis of symbols and
their intended meanings from the social, cultural, political and religious perspective
Koch, Ebba, “Jahangir and his Angels: Recently discovered wall paintings under
European influence in the Fort of Lahore.” In India and the West. J. Deppert.
Delhi: 1983, 173-195.
Crill, Rosemary, Susan Stronge, et al. Arts of Mughal India: Studies in Honor of
Robert Skelton. Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishers, 2004.
Lectures 15-18: Shah Jahan and his imperial ideology
Koch, Ebba, “Shah Jahan and Orpheus: The Pietre Dure Decoration and the
Programme of the Throne in the Hall of public Audience at the Red Fort of
Delhi”, reprinted in Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology, 61-129.
Chughtai, Abdul Rehman, Lahore ka Dabistan-e-Musawarri. Lahore: Chughtai
Museum Trust Publication, 1995.
Beach, Milo Cleveland and Ebba Koch, King of the World. The Padshanama. An
Imperial Mughal Manuscript from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle... with new
translation by Wheeler Thackston. London: Azimuth Editions – Sackler Gallery,
1997.
Begley, W.E., “Illustrated Histories of Shah Jahan: New Identifications of some
Dispersed Paintings and the Problem of the Windsor Castle Padshahnama ”, in
R. Skelton et al., Facets of Indian Arts. 139-152.
Lectures 19-26: Modern Pakistani Miniature Artists
Hashmi, Salima. Unveiling the Visible: Lives and works of women artists of
Pakistan.
Ali, Amjad. Painters of Pakistan. Islamabad: National book Foundation, 1995.
Whiles, Virginia. “Contemporary Miniature Painting from Pakistan.” Exhibition
Catalogue, Fukuoka Art Museum. Kyoto. Dec. 2004.
Whiles, Virginia, Art and polemic in Pakistan : Cultural Politics and Tradition in
Contemporary Miniature Painting (London: Tauris Academic Studies, 2010).
Newspaper articles
Lectures 27, 28: Revision
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