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The Mughal School oM inia tuPai nti g 39 interest in building an artistic repertoire and an imperial atelier. This is an indication of Humayun’s artistic taste and helps us form a picture of Humayun as a connoisseur and an aesthete. He founded the Nigaar Khana (painting workshop), which was also a part of his library. Not much is known about the size and composition of Humayun’s workshop in India. However, it is known that he started the project of illustration of Hamza Nama that was continued by his son and successor Akbar. When we look at an extraordinary Mughal painting from the early period, Princes of the House of Timur (1545–50), probably by Safavid artist, Abd us Samad, in opaque watercolour on cotton, we are surprised by its size and complex structure and display of historical portraits. A prized possession of the imperial family, it has portraits that were painted over the original to register the portraits of successive members of the Mughal dynasty. So, visible in their physical likeness are portraits of Akbar, Jahangir and Babur inspecting the fort of Gwalior, Bhure, Baburnama, Shah Jahan painted subsequently over those painted during 1598, National Museum, the reign of Humayun. New Delhi Open air painting with trees and blossoms, and royal merrymaking, which depicts the ancestral members of the Mughal dynasty were followed after Humayun, who was the patron of this kind of artwork. The format, theme, figures and colour palette are remarkably Persian. There is indeed at this point we may state that there is no particular dominant element having Indian inspiration. But soon, this vocabulary changes to accommodate the growing and peculiar Mughal sensibility and distinct imperial taste. The tradition and fascination for painting started by Humayun was carried forward by his illustrious son Akbar (1556–1605). Abul Fazal, the court historian of Akbar, writes about Akbar’s passion for arts. He records that more than a hundred artists were employed in the royal atelier. This included the most skilled Persian and indigenous Indian artists of that time. This integrated composition of Indo-Persian artists led to the development of a unique style in this period. These artists together undertook ambitious projects that established new artistic Reprint 2026-27