| "Explaining Early Mughal Painting" offers a new historical approach and artistic interpretation of Mughal painting, often celebrated as the culmination of court patronage. My thesis reexamines the broader narrative of Mughal painting between 1570 and 1611 by exploring a group of illustrated manuscripts, known as the Anvar-i Suhayli. The manuscripts in question belong to the genre of animal fables, a genre that has been known as one of the most powerful allegorical tools in the Islamic world. By exploring the complex relationship between text and image and pursuing a comparative study of illustrated manuscripts created by royal ateliers, I refute the idea that illustrated manuscripts of the same text in Mughal India were connected to a single pictorial tradition and were therefore related to one another.;My thesis demonstrates that, Mughal illustrated manuscripts belonged to clusters of manuscripts produced at the same locale and time. Identifying these manuscript clusters allows me to reconstruct the broader narrative of Mughal painting, one that accords more significance to the impact of regional tastes, rather than the disproportionate weight that previously has been accorded to Imperial preference. By situating the Anvar-i Suhayli manuscripts in their artistic, cultural, and historical contexts I propose a redefinition of Mughal painting, one that embodies more fully its depth and diverse audiences.;My thesis begins with a theoretical and methodological discussion as well as a textual analysis of the manuscripts. I then focus on the physical aspects of each of the Anvar-i Suhayli copies. This portion is followed by a comparative study of the illustrations with other contemporary paintings in order to establish the position of a given manuscript in the hierarchic world of Mughal painting, explore their place of production, and evaluate the scale of patronage involved in their creation. This methodology can be applied to manuscripts beyond the scope of my thesis, where relations to a pictorial model cannot be established, as well as in cases where illustrations of the same text differ from one manuscript to another. |
