The brush of insight: artists and agency at the Mughal court

Abstract

"Over the course of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Mughal court painters evolved from being mere illustrators of manuscripts and albums to mediating imperial visionary experience, assuming novel roles as imperial intimates. In Agents of Insight, Yael Rice traces this shift, demonstrating how royal artists created a new visual economy that featured highly naturalistic royal portraits, depictions of the emperors' dreams, and close, documentary studies of courtly gifts and rarities."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Inner Visions: Fragments from the Unseen World -- Workshop and Empire: The Invention of the Mughal Painter -- Forms of Knowledge: The Emperor's Body and the Artist's Brush -- World in a Book: Performance, Creation, and the Royal Album -- Epilogue: From Copy to Trace.