The Brush of Insight: Artists and Agency at the Mughal Court

The Brush of Insight explores how Mughal court painters transformed from manuscript illustrators to active mediators of imperial visionary experience, creating a new visual economy that featured highly naturalistic royal portraits and depictions of the emperors' dreams. It challenges the status of writing as the primary medium for the transmission of knowledge and experience and probes how pictures and illustrated books became central to imperial modes of seeing and being in early modern Mughal South Asia.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 09 June 2023
Publisher: University of Washington Press

The Brush of Insight sheds light on the art and artists that gave material form to the Mughal imperial vision during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Mughal court painters evolved from illustrators of manuscripts and albums to active mediators of imperial visionary experience, cultivating their patrons' earthly and spiritual authority. The book features over 80 color illustrations that demonstrate how royal artists created a new visual economy that featured highly naturalistic royal portraits and depictions of the emperors' dreams. These images shaped the perception of the Mughal emperors' preeminence in all domains, from the reign of Akbar to that of his son and successor, Jahangir. Art historian Yael Rice documents how manuscript painters and paintings challenged the status of writing as the primary medium for the transmission of knowledge and experience, and how pictures and illustrated books became central to imperial modes of seeing and being in early modern Mughal South Asia. The book offers compelling material and original arguments that explore the role of pictures and illustrated books in shaping imperial power and authority.

Weight: 953g
Dimension: 254 x 178 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780295751092