Indian Court Painting, c.1526-1857 - HOA00107M

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  • Department: History of Art
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: M
  • Academic year of delivery: 2025-26

Module summary

Indian Court Painting, c.1526-1857 considers the rich visual and material culture of South Asia from the arrival of the Mughals into the region until the British Crown took over much of what we now think about as India and Pakistan following the Indian Insurrection.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 1 2025-26

Module aims

Indian Court Painting, c.1526-1857 considers the rich visual and material culture of South Asia from the arrival of the Mughals into the region until the British Crown took over much of what we now think about as India and Pakistan following the Indian Insurrection. The course thinks about the material at a variety of scales, from individual emperors as patrons; through regions, such as Rajasthan; to religions, such as the Sikhs. The course centres on the long arc of Mughal court painting, starting with the arrival, with Humayun, of Persian painters, themselves in the long shadow of Chinese painting, in the mid seventeenth century, exploring how they adapted to their new South Asian contexts and engaged with both Hindu and European visual cultures. The course then goes on to explore the way South Asian court painting adapted under the different religious heterodoxies and orthodoxies of Akbar, Jahangir, Shahjahan, and Aurangzeb, before considering the regional migration of artists out to the Hindu Rajput and Pahari courts. In addition, we think about the, in many ways, parallel Islamic court painting of the Deccan, which remained closer to Iranian prototypes; and the emergence of both Sikh and Anglo-Indian traditions in the long eighteenth century. The course also thinks about the long shadow of partition and resurgent, normative, twentieth-century Islamic and Hindu nationalisms on the character of the scholarship, seeking to push the field in a range of new directions. No previous knowledge of South Asian art is required for this module. We explore from the images out.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should have acquired:

  • A detailed, critical knowledge of a significant number of examples of artworks made in South Asia in the period

  • A detailed, critical knowledge of the various, overlapping cultural contexts of these examples

  • A detailed, critical knowledge of the historiographic and methodological traditions associated with these examples

Indicative assessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100

Module feedback

You will receive feedback on assessed work within the timeframes set out by the University - please check the Guide to Assessment, Standards, Marking and Feedback for more information.

The purpose of feedback is to help you to improve your future work. If you do not understand your feedback or want to talk about your ideas further, you are warmly encouraged to meet your Supervisor during their Office Hours.

Indicative reading

  • Aitken, Molly. The Intelligence of Tradition in Rajput Court Painting. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.
  • Beach, Milo Cleveland, and Ebba Koch. King of the World: The Padshahnama. London: Azimuth, 1997.
  • Davis, Richard H. Lives of Indian Images. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
  • Fotheringham, Avalon. The Indian Textile Sourcebook. London: Thames and Hudson, 2019.
  • Goswamy, B.N. The Spirit of Indian Painting. London: Thames and Hudson, 2016.
  • Haidar, Navina Najat, and Marika Sarder, eds. Sultans of Deccan India 1500-1700: Opulence and Fantasy. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015.
  • Llewellyn Jones, Rosie, ed. Portraits in Princely India, 1700-1947. Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2008.
  • Milwright, Marcus. Islamic Arts and Crafts. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017.
  • Mitter, Partha. Much Maligned Monsters: A History of European Reactions to Indian Art. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977.
  • Schmitz, Barbara, ed. After the Great Mughals: Painting in Delhi and the Regional Courts in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2002.
  • Shaffer, Holly. Grafted Arts: Art Making and Taking in the Struggle for Western India, 1760-1940. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022.
  • Strong, Susan. The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms. London: V&A Publications, 1999.