Art History: Indian Painting | The Courtly Traditions

Instructor: Kavita Singh

April 14 to 16, 2009 | 9:30 am to 5:30 pm
M.C. Ghia Hall, Mumbai

This course on Indian courtly or ‘miniature’ painting is simultaneously an introduction and an advanced course. It is introductory in that it provides glimpses of many major phases of Indian painting, but it can serve as advanced because it draws upon much recent research in the area. The course will begin with a consideration of major phases and achievements of Mughal painting. It will then look at a small selection of painting traditions from Rajasthan and the Pahari region. Unlike most texts on Indian painting which are dominated by connoisseurship, this course will try to bring a social history approach to the field.

Lectures:

Day 1:
1. Introduction: Courtly Painting in India
2. Humayun and the Emulation of Persia
3. The Riddles of the Early Manuscripts: Tutinama and Hamzanama
4. Akbar’s Histories
5. Mughal Painting and its Encounter with Europe

Day 2:
6. Jahangir: Dream and Reality
7. Shahjahan’s Magnificence
8. Later and Provincial Mughal Painting: The Diffusion of an Idea
9. Bikaner: Rajputs allied to Mughals
10. Mewar 1: Theatre of Cultural Resistance

Day 3:
11. Mewar 2: Tamasha painting and the rituals of courtly life
12. Poetry and Painting at Kishangarh
13. Pahari Painting: An Overview
14. The Family of Nainsukh
15. Contemporary Lives of the Miniature in Pakistan, India

Kavita Singh is currently Associate Professor at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, where she teaches courses on the history of Indian painting and museum and curatorial studies. She has published on Sikh art, Indian folk and courtly painting and the history of museums in India.