Katalog

The opulent lands of the Great Mughals attracted a wide array of Europeans to India seeking economic opportunities. Beginning with the presence of the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, along with some Germans and Italians, 1 the European presence in India expanded vastly over the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 2 Art objects as well as written and painted materials became popular ways of repre- senting India. Manuscripts and paintings began to arrive in Europe, mainly in the Netherlands, via the factors of the Dutch East India Company, for royalty and aristo- crats as well as scholars and shareholders in the company. 3 The Indian painting albums in the Kupferstich-Kabinett (Ca 110–Ca 113) that can be broadly categorised as Deccani Mughal in style consist largely of individual portraits of Indian rulers and of their officers and noblemen. These join the corpus of known portrait albums of similar style and period in other European collections, 4 often reflecting upon the close relationship that existed between collectors, painters, and engravers. Ca 112 demonstrates how Euro- pean travellers and collectors shared their works with engravers, thus becoming a part of history in their famous published travelogues. During the reign of Aurangzēb (r. 1658–1707), artists from the Mughal imperial atelier became increasingly desperate for work, as his rule brought about a precipitous decline in imperial patronage of illustrated manuscripts and muraqqa’ . The closing of ateliers led to the dismissal of master painters and their assistants, who established their own workshops 5 and sought new patrons—not only among noblemen and the rich 6 but also among Europeans. 7 The craftsmanship of these artists who had worked in the service of the kings 8 now suffered, as they quickly produced multiple works of medio- cre quality to meet the demand. 9 Indian art now travelled as a part of the ongoing Indo-European trade. James Frazer (1713–1754), a collector and an official of the East India Company in Surat, wrote to the English novelist John Cleland (1709–1789) regarding the sale of Persian manuscripts and portraits in his possession. 10 Frazer inquires if any of Cleland’s friends in London would be interested in buying them and says that he already has an offer from a gentleman called Mons. Martin 11 and could easily send them to France if there were a lack of interest. This exchange demonstrates the lively market for these manuscripts, not only in Amsterdam but in England and France as well. 12 The Dresden portrait albums that are similar to the type of portraits produced in Golconda in the 1660s for European audience can be grouped into four standard types. The first type includes rulers from Tīmūr (r. 1370–1405) until Aurangzēb, sometimes extending as far as the Emperor Farrukh Sīyar (r. 1713–1719). 13 The second type includes about 179 kings and queens of India from Rājā Yudhis.t.hira until Aurangzēb. 14 The third type includes the Mughal rulers from Akbar until Aurangzēb, portraits of rulers of Gol- Cat. 1–4 Four Portrait Albums of Indian Rulers Note to the Reader The systematic catalogue of the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett lists the Indian works in the collection acquired before 1738 as described in the Heucher Inventory (cat. 1–7), followed by the Indian paintings from the Schlegel Collection donated in 1848 (cat. 8–85), and illustrations from a recently donated copy of the Shāhnāma illustrated in Kashmirian style (cat. 86). It goes on to describe three Indian paint- ings pasted into an album with texts and artworks of various origins—European, Japanese, and Chinese—deriving from a number of sources (cat. 87) and an incom- plete set of Indian playing cards (cat. 88). Finally, there are a number of works, possi- bly of European or Ottoman origin, catego- rised as“Indica”, probably during the nine- teenth century (cat. 89–91). The inventory number is provided in the caption following the catalogue number. Inscriptions on the verso are provided in the captions or listed in the appendices. The medium referred to as“watercol- our” includes different types of ink and of opaque and lavish watercolour, and many of the works show a mixture of these medi- ums. Gold and silver pigments are listed separately. All paintings from the Schlegel Collection have frames painted on paper in brown watercolour and gold. The indication of the medium is referring to the painting itself only. If a portrait could not be clearly assigned to a person, the supposed name is followed by a question mark in square brackets. Authors (Catalogue and Appendices): NB Neha Berlia CB Cordula Bischoff CPH Claus Peter Haase OH Oliver Hahn PKH Petra Kuhlmann-Hodick IR Ira Rabin NS Nedim Sönmez AT Andrew Topsfield