A Glimpse Into Royalty: Mughal Miniature Masterpieces

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. 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.

Knowing the context within which this artistry thrived is important. Based in northern India during the 16th through 18th centuries, the Mughals ruled as one of the most dominant regimes in Asia. The empire was spread over the land of most of what is now modern-day India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and it became the most powerful economic force in the world by 1700, with about 25 percent of the world’s gross domestic product.

The process of the intricate making of the Mughal miniature art

An immense amount of technical skill is required for each tiny detailed work. The paper was cut to size and polished to such a degree that no ink would absorb the material before any painting was done. With many different artists assisting in the same illustration, the workload was divided into outlining and coloring tasks. Even as individual artists began to take credit for their work, the labor-intensive paintings were still the result of collaboration between an enormous workshop. Younger artists completed the majority of miniature paintings; the intense level of inspection required and to paint such tiny details meant worn out and overused eyes simply weren’t up for the job. Many portraits of these artists were often shown wearing glasses. 

The inks were frequently made from minerals like copper salts or cinnabar making viridian and red color respectively, and also from more biological sources, like insects, which were used to bring up crimson. The particularly vivid yellow found in the paintings has an unlikely source: the urine from cows specially fed on mango leaves.

By the time Emperor Aurangzeb died in 1707, the Mughal miniature tradition was in full decline. As the empire weakened, the three cultures upon which the empire was built reclaimed the paintings they had enabled. Many works disappeared into the private holdings of Indian officials. The Persian Shah sacked Delhi in 1739, bringing art back to Iran as loot. And, of course, vast quantities of miniatures were brought back to London by the East India Company and its representatives (today, British museums today hold some of the best miniature collections).

The heritage of Mughal Miniature paintings in Modern India

The Mughal Empire may be long gone but still managed to leave behind strong aesthetic sensibilities that remain in India today. The liking for Mughal-style gardens is a constant on the subcontinent, and contemporary work like Raqib Shaw’s Garden of Earthly Delights X (2004) revives the saturated colors and extreme detail of the miniatures. The influence of the genre is even more extensive than you might imagine. You can experience the enchanting world of Mughal paintings in Indian museums like the National Museum in Delhi also in the Salar Jun Museum located in Hyderabad.