Eighteenth-century Indian muraqqaʻs : audiences--artists--patrons and collectors / for the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin ; edited by Friederike Weis.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Weis, Friederike, editor, contributor.

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Germany), sponsoring body.

Series:

Islamic manuscripts and books ; v. 23.

Islamic manuscripts and books, 1877-9964 ; volume 23

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Muraqqas--India--History--18th century.

Muraqqas.

Painting, Mughal Empire--History--18th century.

Painting, Mughal Empire.

Illumination of books and manuscripts, Mughal Empire--History--18th century.

Illumination of books and manuscripts, Mughal Empire.

Calligraphy, Mughal Empire--History--18th century.

Calligraphy, Mughal Empire.

Art, Mughal Empire--History--18th century.

Art, Mughal Empire.

Physical Description:

xxix, 440 pages : color illustrations ; 27 cm

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2025]

Summary:

"Fourteen essays and one appendix discuss numerous eighteenth-century Indo-Persianate albums (muraqqa's) consisting of folios with paintings, calligraphic pieces, and elaborate decorative margins. These albums - now in Berlin, Baroda, London, Paris, and Manchester - were assembled for or collected by the Mughal nawabs of Awadh (Uttar Pradesh), local elites in Bengal and Bihar, as well as Europeans. The book not only presents hitherto rarely investigated material, but also provides general information and many new discoveries based on first-hand codicological study and historical research. It will significantly expand our knowledge of the production, collecting practices, and audiences of muraqqa's in eighteenth-century India.

Contents:

Introduction : Problems and challenges in the study of eighteenth-century Indian albums / Friederike Weis

PART 1. Albums commissioned by Mughal elites : contents and compilation strategies. The Indian paintings from the collection of Archibald Swinton, formerly at Kimmerghame House, Berwickshire / a report by J.P. Losty, edited by Malini Roy and Friederike Weis

Obvious narratives and hidden messages in the large Clive Album / Axel Langer

Two late Mughal albums in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle : further evidence for the collections of Nawab Asaf al-Dawla / Emily Hannam

Mughal art on its own terms : reflections on an album folio / Laura Parodi.

PART 2. Albums of foreign elites : changes and challenges. Three albums of Seigneur Gentil and colonel Polier : cultural exchanges in late eighteenth-century India / Susan Stronge

To be viewed from both ends : the surviving Polier albums / Friederike Weis

A newly identified muraqqaʻ assembled for Antoine-Louis-Henri Polier in the British Museum / Malini Roy with a contribution by Jake Benson

Like a garden bedecked : floral margins in the muraqqa's of Antoine Polier / Isabelle Imbert.

PART 3. Masters of calligraphy and painting : between historicism and innovation. The earlier calligraphies in the Berlin albums : reflections on their origins and purpose in a muraqqaʻ / Claus-Peter Haase

Polier's posterior album : Rylands Persian MS 10 / Jake Benson

Expanding the canon : Mir Muhammad Husayn 'Ata Khan and the Polier albums / Will Kwiatkowski

Mihr Chand's copies and adaptations of earlier Mughal paintings / John Seyller.

PART 4. Spaces and gazes : reading imagined worlds. The spaces in between : a Yogini of Lucknow for Antoine Polier / Molly Aitken

Building worlds : reading spatiality, power, and gaze in eighteenth-century paintings / Parul Singh.

Appendix : Inscriptions and seal impressions in the Berlin albums I. 4589, I. 4591, I. 4592, I 5001, and I. 4600 / Will Kwiatkowski and Friederike Weis.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 407-421) and indexes.

Other Format:

Online version: Eighteenth-century Indian Muraqqa's

ISBN:

9789004715783

9004715789

OCLC:

1482829932