The Arts of Mughal India

This course focuses on the art practices of Mughal emperors and courtiers during the early modern period. We will study a vast array of material objects including jewelry, miniature painting, and architecture. In moving through these various scales of production from the miniature to the monumental, and by tracing their patronage and acts of circulation, we will chart the role that these aesthetic objects had in everyday lives. In addition to this historical approach, we will discuss how the Mughals and their arts reached well beyond South Asia, and continue to be invoked for meeting modern day sensibilities of secularism and Western standards of beauty. 3 Credits. Satisfies the non-Western or pre-1800 requirement.