Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses in what ways artists working in the Mughal kitabkhana and their royal patrons 'collaborated' to create powerful images of the power embodied (the emperor's body) via the integration of religious symbols within the secular aesthetics of politics.

Paper long abstract:

Despite its delicate nature and its minute dimensions, the art of miniature in the Islamic world was nevertheless considered a potent tool to make statements of great impact in the political arena. Primarily, it worked as a space of negotiation for the construction and affirmation of dynastic legitimacy and royal power. However, it also served as a stage for the aesthetic creation (and the recreation) of the image of the perfect ruler; the physical place where secular authority and religious charisma ideally met and conflated. This phenomenon is particularly evident in Mughal painting and, precisely, in the artistic production from the time of Jahangir (r. 1605-1627) onwards, when the practice of portraiture and single flyleaves assembled in the form of albums assumed a preeminent role within the royal kitabkhana. Among the numerous portraits executed under Jahangir, the emperor's allegorical portraits retain a relevant place for their complex iconography and the conflation of secular and spiritual symbolism. The emperor's body, emblem of the worldly authority, is exposed, transmuted, encircled with a mystical aura and, most important, associated with highly revered sufi figures to create a striking, yet ambiguous, image of the power embodied. The viewer is enchanted and fascinated by the symbolic and strictly hierarchical composition and the delicate, serene, colour palette, finding himself captured in the middle of a polyphonic and polymorphic discourse. This paper analyses in what ways artists working in the Mughal kitabkhana and their royal patrons 'collaborated' to create powerful images of the power embodied via the integration of religious symbols within a secular aesthetic system.