Composite miniature painting
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Composite art is when two or more different animals or animals and human beings comes together to form an image, this tradition is relevant in both India and Persia. There are several mythical creatures in India where animals and humans are fused together similar can can be see in persia, such as Yali in Hinduism and---in Persia[1]. A similar concept is seen in several of the miniature paintings majorly from Mughal Empire and Deccan Sultanate, however few examples could also be found in Rajput, Murshidabad and Delhi school.[2] [3]Most common depiction iof the style is of a animal which is formed by several human figures or other creatures found in nature.[1]
History and Origin
Composite art can be defined as a figure composed of a whole or part of different creature including human beings, animals, birds, reptiles, aquatics, insects, etc.It is difficult create such a complex figure, where an image is contained inside, thee kind of works requires a skilled, mature and creative artist. [4]Origin of the painting style is still unknown and under discussions by scholars.[5] Although it is understood that there are two prominent traditions where composite art have a history, Hindu and Mughal. Earliest known example of composite art from North India is an amalgamation of a Elephant and a Horse found in Jain Manuscript Known as Devasanopado Kalpsutra from the late 15th century and a similar example from south india is from Vijayanagar, which also a combination of elephant and horse from late 16th century.It is difficult to accredit first mughal painting of composite art but several beautiful images were have been noticed from the court of Mughal Emperor Akbar, these paintings were devoid of any colour and were done in pencil.[1]
Muslim and Hindu Styles
One of the main and earliest Mughal style composition is head of animals growing on different natural elements such as vines, a prominent example of this is the border of Jahangir's Manuscript, Farahang-i-Jahangir, which is made up of vines with head of animals both existing and fantastic.Another type of Mughal style consists of a demon or pari who is sitting on the composite creature or guiding the composite and the composite is generally composed of animals and human figures devouring each other. [6][1]This style was copied in different Mughal schools such as Murshidabad, but were made in Hindu workshops and the most common composition seen in hindu workshops were of the composite camel.[7][1]
There were also compositions of Hindu workshops being recreated in Deccan Muslim workshop like composite horse made up of human figures , in a hindu composition there are either five or seven women forming a horse, an in the Deccan School we see six men composing a horse with seventh as a rider. Common hindu composite also consists of an elephant with nine women. As hindus consider odd numbers to be auspicious thus the number keeps repeating.[1][8]In the painting of both later Mughal and Hindu Period, Scholars say that there is a natural flow which is missing in the previous ones, typically seen in the tiger composition and camel composition from bundi.[1]
Themes
There are three prominent themes under which these paintings were created, first, in this case the composite figures are being ridden by a human and the composite figure can be an animal , a bird or an object like a palanquin made of humans. In several Hindu style 17th century paintings,other than human the composite is mounted wiith God Krishna, the folklore behind the painting is that when Krishna wanted to leave gopis (maiden) would insisted oh him staying and if he did not agree they would take form of different animals like elephant or a horse or a palanquin and the carry him.In the second type of the painting the composite animal is not just made of humans but from other creatures from nature such as animals, plants and sometimes demons. Plants with heads of animals and demons also fall in this section. Third type has the same composition as the second one but has a human head, an example of this type is Buraq.[9][1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Bonta, R. J. D. (1996). Indian Composite painting, two articles. Orientations, January Issue, and Flora and Fauna in Mughal Art, Marg.
- ^ "Composite Paintings". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
- ^ aesthetic, hindu (2021-04-05). "Art History: The origin of "Composite Animals" in Deccan paintings". Medium. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
- ^ Goud, Balagouni Krishna; Sarma, M.V.S. (2012). "COMPOSITE ART: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE MINIATURE PAINTINGS IN SALAR JUNG MUSEUM". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 73: 416–420. ISSN 2249-1937.
- ^ N.Y.), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York; Ekhtiar, Maryam (2011). Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-1-58839-434-7.
- ^ Ghosh, Soma (2021-01-01). "Composite paintings - portrayal of the surreal and fantastic in Indian art". International Journal of Creative Research Thought.
- ^ "Composite Camel with Attendant". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
- ^ "Composite Elephant". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
- ^ Del Bonta, Robert J(1996) Indian Composite paintings - a playful art.