Portraiture In Early India

This book highlights the specificities of Indian portraiture in sculpted and painted images, its relationship with divine images and aims, with the help of textual and epigraphical references, to understand the development of Indian imagery. It questions also the social and religious implications related to this issue.

One of the most remarkable artistic achievements of the Mughal Empire was the emergence in the early seventeenth century of portraits of identifiable individuals, unprecedented in both South Asia and the Islamic world. Appearing at a time of increasing contact between Europe and Asia, portraits from the reigns of the great Mughal emperor-patrons Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan are among the best-known paintings produced in South Asia. In the following centuries portraiture became more widespread in the visual culture of South Asia, especially in the rich and varied traditions of painting, but also in sculpture and later prints and photography. This collection seeks to understand the intended purpose of a range of portrait traditions in South Asia and how their style, setting and representation may have advanced a range of aesthetic, social and political functions. The chapters range across a wide historical period, exploring ideals of portraiture in Sanskrit and Persian literature, the emergence and political symbolism of Mughal portraiture, through to the paintings of the Rajput courts, sculpture in Tamil temples and the transformation of portraiture in colonial north India and post-independence Pakistan. This specially commissioned collection of studies from a strong list of established scholars and rising stars makes a significant contribution to South Asian history, art and visual culture.

Since Independence, the princes and regional rulers of India have mostly been seen as anachronistic figures, too closely associated with the former colonial government, and often a byword for extravagance, sybaritic lifestyles, and mild despotism. When in 1967 they were stripped of their privy purses by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, there were more protests in Britain than in India. No serious efforts have been made to put these men, and a few women, in a pictorial context, to examine the differing styles of portraiture favoured by them, and the motives behind the pictures, until now. The more one gazes at these important but hitherto neglected works of art, the more questions are raised. This book attempts to answer and interpret some of them. The arrival of European painters in late 18th century India presented a new opportunity for Indian rulers to commission self-portraits of a different kind, and also to influence indigenous artists in new styles and paint mediums. The arrival of photography brought a further opportunity for them to be pictured in different ways.

The ninth exhibition in the Indian Portrait series focuses on the introduction of Parsi portraiture in India and an insight on their art, culture and education etc. Paintings, photographs, CDVs, cabinet card albums, engravings, lithographs, prints & collectibles etc. are the different mediums that helped to preserve history. It contains over 170 portraits and was exhibited in December 2018.

The role of the portrait in India between 1560 and 1860 served as an official chronicle or eye-witness account, as a means of revealing the intimate moments of everyday life, and as a tool for propaganda. Yet the proliferation and mastery of Indian portraiture in the Mughal and Rajput courts brought a new level of artistry and style to the genre.

Portraits are everywhere. One finds them not only in museums and galleries, but also in newspapers and magazines, in the homes of people and in the boardrooms of companies, on stamps and coins, on millions of cell phones and computers. Despite its huge popularity, however, portraiture hasn’t received much philosophical attention. While there are countless art historical studies of portraiture, contemporary philosophy has largely remained silent on the subject. This book aims to address that lacuna. It brings together philosophers (and philosophically minded historians) with different areas of expertise to discuss this enduring and continuously fascinating genre. The chapters in this collection are ranged under five broad themes. Part I examines the general nature of portraiture and what makes it distinctive as a genre. Part II looks at some of the subgenres of portraiture, such as double portraiture, and at some special cases, such as sport card portraits and portraits of people not present. How emotions are expressed and evoked by portraits is the central focus of Part III, while Part IV explores the relation between portraiture, fiction, and depiction more generally. Finally, in Part V, some of the ethical issues surrounding portraiture are addressed. The book closes with an epilogue about portraits of philosophers. Portraits and Philosophy tangles with deep questions about the nature and effects of portraiture in ways that will substantially advance the scholarly discussion of the genre. It will be of interest to scholars and students working in philosophy of art, history of art, and the visual arts.