Aesthetic Hybridity in Mughal Painting, 1526-1658

The first critical study to be published on Mughal pictorial hybridity, this book investigates the workings of the diverse creative forces that underpinned the formation of the Mughal painting. Valerie Gonzalez here explores - with the updated methodology of art criticism - the processes of cross-fertilization between the Indo-Persianate legacy, the Persian models imported after 1555 and the influx of European art that have brought about a unique Indo-Islamic pictorial metaphysics characterized by a positivist mimetic order distinct from the idealistic Persian pictoriality.

Valerie Gonzalez is an expert on Islamic art history and aesthetics. She teaches Islamic studies at the Leighton House Museum, London. She was previously a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, USA.

Contents: Preface Introduction Part I Studying Mughal Painting: Critical Issues and State of Affairs: Epistemological preliminaries; Historiographical and conceptual framework of Mughal pictorial hybridity. Part II The Mughal Pictorial Becoming: From the Beginning of the Empire (1526) to the End of Shah Jahan's Reign (1658): Genesis of aesthetic hybridity in Mughal painting; Hyperdialectics in the Akbari pictorial synthesis; Suite et Fin: from unbridled hybridization to non-hybridness. Conclusion; References; Index.