Art of Mughal India : painting and precious objects

The Mughal dynasty in India began and ended with poets; and the intervening emperors were, with few exceptions, among the world's most esthetically minded rulers. Within the span of a few decades they evolved an art style that pervaded every man-made thing from great cities to the tiniest jade pins used for tying turbans. It was an art that seldom strayed far from nature. The emperors doted on flowers and animals, and these were made the subject of their poetic imagery, as in a crystal box shaped like a mango, or a jade cup that changes in form from flower into goat.

The emperor's varying moods found expression at the hands of their artists and craftsmen, who gave tangible form to their flights of fancy. Mughal miniatures abound in the picturesque, the remote, and the unknown, which were sought in Akbar's fantastic Hamza-Nama, larger than any illustrated book in Islamic tradition and charged with wonder; in Jahangir the World-seizer's condensed, super-naturalistic world of picture albums; and in Shah Jahan's airless but wish-fullfilling state images-all of which are impassioned projections of the romantic spirit.