Court, Company, Crown: Indian Court Painting, c.1526-1857 considers the rich visual and material culture of South Asia from the arrival of the Mughals into the region until the British Crown took over much of what we now think about as India and Pakistan following the Indian Insurrection.
Module will run
Occurrence
Teaching period
A
Semester 1 2024-25
Module aims
Court, Company, Crown: Indian Court Painting, c.1526-1857 considers the rich visual and material culture of South Asia from the arrival of the Mughals into the region until the British Crown took over much of what we now think about as India and Pakistan following the Indian Insurrection. In any given year, the module might consider examples from any or all of the three overlapping: Mughal, para-Mughal, and post-Mughal traditions: Mughal, Hindu, and Sikh.
Module learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students should have acquired:
A detailed, critical knowledge of a significant number of examples of artworks made in South Asia in the period
A detailed, critical knowledge of the various, overlapping cultural contexts of these examples
A detailed, critical knowledge of the historiographic and methodological traditions associated with these examples
Indicative assessment
Task
% of module mark
Essay/coursework
100
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
Task
% of module mark
Essay/coursework
100
Module feedback
You will receive feedback on assessed work within the timeframes set out by the University - please check the Guide to Assessment, Standards, Marking and Feedback for more information.
The purpose of feedback is to help you to improve your future work. If you do not understand your feedback or want to talk about your ideas further, you are warmly encouraged to meet your Supervisor during their Office Hours.
Indicative reading
Aitken, Molly. The Intelligence of Tradition in Rajput Court Painting. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.
Beach, Milo Cleveland, and Ebba Koch. King of the World: The Padshahnama. London: Azimuth, 1997.
Davis, Richard H. Lives of Indian Images. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
Fotheringham, Avalon. The Indian Textile Sourcebook. London: Thames and Hudson, 2019.
Goswamy, B.N. The Spirit of Indian Painting. London: Thames and Hudson, 2016.
Haidar, Navina Najat, and Marika Sarder, eds. Sultans of Deccan India 1500-1700: Opulence and Fantasy. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015.
Llewellyn Jones, Rosie, ed. Portraits in Princely India, 1700-1947. Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2008.
Milwright, Marcus. Islamic Arts and Crafts. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017.
Mitter, Partha. Much Maligned Monsters: A History of European Reactions to Indian Art. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977.
Schmitz, Barbara, ed. After the Great Mughals: Painting in Delhi and the Regional Courts in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2002.
Shaffer, Holly. Grafted Arts: Art Making and Taking in the Struggle for Western India, 1760-1940. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022.
Strong, Susan. The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms. London: V&A Publications, 1999.