Moghul Art Gallery
F - 321, Opp. Mother Dairy, II Floor, Lado Sarai,
New Delhi
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During the Mughal rule in India, culture and learning reached its zenith. The Mughals were great lovers of art and architecture. Mughal paintings are an interesting point of study for the Indian historians and archaeologists. The art galleries and museums in Delhi have a wonderful collection of miniature paintings, marble paintings, paper paintings, manuscripts and so on. Besides the handicrafts are also an important part of the Delhi paintings.
Delhi culture gives a taste of the Mughal culture. The Mughal artists are remarkable for their significant contribution to painting. There were various schools during the reign of the last Mughal ruler, Bahadur Shah Zafar. The schools imparted quality training to the people, who took interest in art and sculpture. Each school was distinct from the other and followed their unique style. The Iranian style was also blended along with their styles and the content was either lyrical or narrative. Artists like Imam Bakhsh, Dip Chand and Chitarman made significant contributions in the field of art and enriched the Mughal painting, which earned worldwide fame.
After Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was sent to exile to Rangoon, the family of artists were given great respect by British Rulers. There is a famous album of Sir Metcalf on Delhi which contains most of the paintings Ustad Mazar Ali Khan and others.
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan sought cooperation of the family artist Faiz Ali Khan, Mirza Shah Rukh and others for his book. There are thousands of paintings and books in Alwar Museum which have illustrations of Dilli School of Mughal Miniature Painting.
After the independence of India it was during early 1952, that Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, who was very, familiar with the Dilli School of Miniature Painting artists, expressed a desire, that since childhood, he has been watching and admiring this art of Mughal Miniature Painting. Panditji was very much perturbed to note that the modern art is in vogue. Which he doubts might not tarnish our glorious Traditional art of expression, which has been in practice in India for the last 500 years. Panditji desired that the traditional art form should be continued and made contemporary by introducing, within the frame work, of this style of painting, all the demands of the contemporary admirers and the critics, such as the studies of the flora and fauna, in their natural environments and perspective. The portrait studies shall be from active life and compositions of the contemporary cultural events must have active movements. The said aspects were ignored by the earlier Mughal Painters in the earlier flora studies, no environment was ever found there. To fill up the Lacuna, Firoz, in his compositions of flowers and birds, introduced the natural surroundings and the perspective.
