Art Awaiting Patronage
The greatest legacy of the Mughal Empire is their
contribution to the culture of South Asia with exquisite paintings, textiles,
jewelry, ornaments, clothing, music, dance, poetry, cuisine, architecture and
garden design. It was the age of elegance, and the tone was set by the
emperors. Royalty the world over has
surrounded itself with sumptuous luxury. What distinguished the Mughal empire
was the personal nurturing of the arts by the emperors themselves, creating, inventing
and refining them in state sponsored Karkhanas
or workshops established within the palace and its surroundings.
Artists and artisans were paid a salary, raw materials were
provided and an administrative staff saw to their needs and maintained jama kharch
records. The karkhanas produced
everything the court needed from furniture, carpets, tents, horse saddles,
weaponry and coinage, to clothing
jewelry and perfume – and of course art and architecture. The Emperors
made weekly visits to the karkhanas, setting challenges, rewarding excellence and
conferring titles. Artist Mir Sayyid Ali
was bestowed the title “Nadirul Mulk” , Khwaja Abdus Samad “Shirin Qalam”,
Abul Hasan “Nadir uz Zaman”, Mansur
“Nadir ul Asr”. Abdus Samad was challenged to paint an elaborate scene on a
grain of rice.
New themes for art emerged and experimentation was
encouraged, which determined the course of art history. Emperor Jehangir, who
prided himself on recognizing the artist of each painting, introduced the study
of nature, asking the artist to paint a lion, a chameleon, or the flora of
Kashmir.
Karkhanas were first established by the Tughlaqs in the 13
century. Firoz Shah Tughlaq said the
ownership of a karkhana was as important as the governorship of a region. The
Mughals took karkhanas to new heights of magnificence, inspiring courtiers and
regional rulers to establish their own.
New textiles were developed - Malboos Khas ,silk interwoven
with gold and silver, Khasa, Bafta, striped
silk alachas, Zari, Kantha, Kamkhwab, Chickankari. Emperor Akbar employed
eleven thousand tailors to convert these fabrics into splendid styles of
clothing.
Not only was art and culture elevated by royal patronage, the
economy grew. The shawl makers of Kashmir were taught new techniques and colour
combinations. Royal workshops furnished with 40,000 looms, brought prosperity
to Kashmir.
All this came to an abrupt end in 1857 when the last Mughal
Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was captured by the British and exiled to Rangoon.
General Wilson transferred his headquarters to the abandoned palace and had
dinner in the Dewan e Khas, surrounded by the splendor of the court, which, in
a few blood soaked days, turned into a thing of the past. Artists and artisans
escaped to smaller kingdoms, but the generous Mughal patronage came to an end.
Ironically, a new form of state patronage began, this time
by the British rulers of India. Their motive was not aesthetic joy as it was
for the Mughals, but economic gain in keeping with the Colonial adventure.
Inspired by the success of Indian products at the Crystal
Palace exhibition in London in 1851, the main curator, Henry Cole, persuaded
the government to establish a Department of Science and Arts to give impetus to
industrial capitalism. Arindam Dutta calls it “The Bureaucracy of Beauty”.
Design schools and museums were established across India . The
curriculum was uniformly applied across the British Empire. While it inspired
the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain and the Bauhaus in Germany, the project
failed in India. The British completely misread the dynamics of the family
based craft communities. The design schools became art schools.
Art patronage is a delicate matter. Till the 19th
century, as in South Asia, all European art was commissioned with a mutual
sensitivity between artist and patron. Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Rubens,
Velasquez could produce their best art
only because they had patrons. It was the same for architects and classical
music composers. Roosevelt’s New Deal funding for artists in the midst of the
Great Depression of the 1930s, enabled a new chapter in American Art history.
In Pakistan, billions of rupees are given annually in
charity, motorways and grand buildings are constructed, sports are funded, but there
is no patronage for the arts. Sadequain was an exception, producing forty seven
murals for public places. The wealthy rarely work with artisans and the crafts
have become static. Pakistani artists and musicians have, using their own
resources, made a name for Pakistan art and music across the world.
An important message of the New Deal is that art and culture
promoted across society can unite people, especially in a time of turmoil.
Durriya Kazi
November 19, 2021
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