Arts of India 1550-1900

by John, Guy; Swallow, Deborah

• ISBN13: 9781851770229
• ISBN10: 1851770224
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-11-01
• Publisher: Victoria & Albert Museum

Summary

The Indian art collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum are unrivalled outside the Indian subcontinent. This richly illustrated volume, written by the Museum's curators, presents over 200 of the finest treasures from the collection in a new study which discusses the arts of Mughal, Rajput and British India in the social and cultural context of their time.
The book begins with a survey of the visual arts in pre-Mughal India, then turns to the court arts of the Mughals and the provincial courts of Rajasthan, the Deccan and the Punjab. The European intervention is studied through the great textile trade and the impact of Indian art on European taste is assessed through the Great Exhibitions of the late nineteenth century.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. 7
Photographic credits	p. 7
Preface	p. 8
Introduction	p. 11
The Arts of Pre-Mughal India	p. 19
India in the Ancient World	p. 19
Indian Trade in the Medieval Period	p. 22
The Hindu-Jain Tradition	p. 28
The Pre-Mughal Islamic Tradition	p. 43
The Portuguese and Early European Trade	p. 46
The Age of the Mughals	p. 57
Babur, Humayan and Sher Shah Sur	p. 57
Akbar	p. 62
Jahangir	p. 76
Shah Jahan	p. 85
Aurangzeb	p. 97
The Sultanates of the Deccan	p. 109
The Rajput Courts	p. 125
The Rajputs	p. 125
Mughal Domination of the Rajput Kingdoms	p. 128
Rajput Court Painting	p. 131
Painting in the Punjab Hills	p. 141
Europeans and the Textile Trade	p. 153
The Lure of the Spiceries	p. 153
Centres of Export Textile Production	p. 155
Furnishing Fabrics	p. 158
Costume and Accessories	p. 166
The Later Provincial Courts and British Expansion	p. 173
Historical Background	p. 173
Murshidabad	p. 177
Oudh	p. 180
Mysore and Tipu Sultan	p. 184
Sikhs and Maharaja Ranjit Singh	p. 188
British Patronage and Scholarship	p. 195
The Raj: India 1850-1900	p. 209
British Society in India	p. 210
The Princely States	p. 212
Indian Patronage in British India	p. 216
Decline of the Crafts?	p. 218
Continuity and Persisting Skills	p. 226
School of Art in India	p. 225
India and design in Industrial Britain	p. 233
Glossary	p. 228
Bibliography	p. 230
Index	p. 238
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.