Ruins of power : picturesque portraits of Sultanate architecture

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dc.contributor.authorLochner, Sonia Wandaen_US
dc.date.accessioned2024-08-14T21:07:25Z
dc.date.available2024-08-14T21:07:25Z
dc.date.copyright1990en_US
dc.date.issued1990
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of History in Art
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Art History and Visual Studies
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en
dc.description.abstractThe British produced a vast pictorial record of eighteenth and nineteenth century India. The diverse range of subject matter, that included portraiture, landscapes and scenes of British social life, reflected the varied interests of the British artist in India. British residents also hired native or Company artists to paint picturesque views of ancient buildings, famous Indian emperors or maharajas, and sets of pictures that portrayed the indigenous castes, costumes and occupations of India's people. The largest number of Company paintings was produced at Delhi. In the early nineteenth century Delhi was still a frontier outpost in the East India Company's territories. In 1803, with the defeat of the Hindu Marathas, the British occupied the capital, which subsequently developed into a typical British station. As the British explored the Delhi environs, they were moved by its picturesque ruins, which in turn evoked a melancholy state of mind and induced romantic daydreams. Tours of the monuments became a popular pastime, and picnics were held on the grounds of the Quwwat al-Islam Mosque and the fort of Tughluqabad. The fascination with the emotive and picturesque qualities of the architecture spurred the production of numerous paintings, sketches and prints of Delhi's magnificent ruins. British artists and adventurers were among the first Europeans to visit the more remote Muslim monuments of northern India. William Hodge's Select Views (1786) and the Daniells' Oriental Scenery (1795-1808) promoted a heightened interest in these locales. Their works delighted enthusiasts of the picturesque, prompting Indian artists to paint standard series of architectural compositions for British patrons. Although the monuments of the Mughals aroused the greatest admiration (different views of the Taj Mahal were painted by the hundreds), the earlier structures of the Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526) were often depicted for both their architectural interest and "picturesque" appeal. British and native Indian painting in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries incorporated naturalistic colouring, perspective, shading, modelling and a concern for pictorial verisimilitude. As accurate visual documents of Delhi Sultanate buildings, these works constitute valuable aids in the study of early Islamic architecture in India. Indo-British painting also provides fertile ground for an exploration of the artistic exchanges that may occur be tween two disparate cultures. These images, therefore, are particularly meaningful when analyzed within the context of the manifestation of British aesthetic attitudes in an Oriental setting.
dc.format.extent216 pages
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1828/18729
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.titleRuins of power : picturesque portraits of Sultanate architectureen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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