Masterpieces of Oriental Art. 14: Portrait of Shāh Daulat by Bichitr

Extract

This painting is a dignified example of Mughal Court art towards the middle of the seventeenth century, when portraiture was at its zenith, and, under Court influence, very much in fashion. Bichitr (a Hindu) was one of several accomplished painters of Shah Jahan's reign. He signs himself here “Servant of the Royal Court”, and his portrait of his master, done in 1632, is at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Several other works by him were included in the celebrated Imperial Album to which “Shah Daulat” belonged. This artist, whose works generally emphasized drawing and eschewed brilliant colour, sometimes painted genre subjects and liked to fill the backgrounds of his portraits with realistic detail. Here, however, he has concentrated on a single figure, and mainly on the face, which is drawn with rare feeling and expressive skill. The Saint, who was a revered Muhammedan religious leader under three Emperors, is an impressive figure, with his white robe and brown scarf set against an almost black background. His enormous hands hold a globe inscribed in Persian, “The Key of the Victory over the two Worlds is entrusted to thy hand”; this may typify the devotion of a not unworldly ecclesiastic to the Emperor.