It was “the treasury of the world”, in response to Sir Thomas Roe, writing in 1614 to the long run Charles I from Agra, the place he was England’s first ambassador to the Mughal emperor. The courtroom whose wealth, splendour and tradition so dazzled him was that of Jahangir, ruler over ever-expanding territories that stretched from the Himalayas virtually to the tip of India. Alongside their political and financial energy, Roe witnessed the vary and depth of the Mughals’ cultural achievements, with artwork types from carpetmaking to jewelry, calligraphy, portray, weaponry, materials and extra raised to a then unparalleled stage of sophistication.
Jahangir is likely one of the three Mughal rulers in focus on the V&A’s The Nice Mughals: Artwork, Structure and Opulence, which showcases this golden age of workmanship and artistry with a parade of startlingly magnificent objects and photos.
Jahangir’s father, Akbar, started his 50-year reign in 1556 and was, by all accounts, an exemplary monarch. Islamic invaders from the north-east, the Mughals had subjugated a largely Hindu inhabitants, but Akbar dominated with stunning spiritual open-mindedness. He expanded and unified his empire not solely via army campaigns but in addition diplomacy and financial cajolery, environment friendly paperwork and conciliation of his extremely various conquered topics.
And he vigorously inspired the humanities. Work right here replicate his formidable constructing programmes however we additionally see his imperial workshops beginning to produce luxurious items, textiles and carpets utilizing gorgeous valuable supplies. Craftsmen got here from throughout the empire — carpet makers from central Asia, mother-of-pearl inlay masters from Gujarat — however importantly from Iran. The Persian cultural affect is important at each flip right here, and its fusion with extra native traditions, particularly the Hindu, created what turned a particular Mughal fashion.
Most essential to Akbar was his Home of Books — maybe oddly, since he may neither learn nor write. But he constructed a library of unimaginable magnificence, judging from the frilly and complicated calligraphic artwork on show right here, a lot of it in Persian (the lingua franca of the courtroom) and drawing on the abilities of Iranian masters. The portray types of Akbar’s courtroom present comparable affect, however with a particular twist — one illustration from an Eleventh-century Persian epic reveals a fantastic princess welcoming her lover by letting down her lengthy hair for him to climb up. Above within the clouds, all is swirling fantasy and romance, however beneath in the actual world the depiction of a backyard with its watering system and the geese on a pond is powerfully practical.
In actual fact we glean details about all the pieces from clothes, jewelry and meals to tilework and constructing methods from the element within the photos right here. And the rising extent of worldwide cultural hyperlinks that mirrored the political. Portuguese merchants from Goa imported gems together with European considering, and Akbar invited European craftsmen to show international methods corresponding to enamelling on gold and silver, which rapidly turned established within the Mughal skillset. An excellent thumb ring, of gold set with rubies and emeralds and enamelled inside, is likely one of the virtually impossibly intricate items proven right here.
The working of nephrite jade was one other imported materials ability delivered to stupendous heights within the Mughal courts — an instance here’s a small elegant wine jug (wine was clearly essential all through this era), product of formed jade encrusted with gold, rubies and emeralds. It’s jaw-droppingly fairly, the epitome of outrageous, just-because-we-can luxurious.
There was export too: a hefty round protect on show right here is roofed with tiny figures, horsemen and animals amongst elaborate foliage and patterning (one other Persian fashion, razm o bazm, scenes of the hunt, feasts and struggle) tightly labored in glittering mother-of-pearl inlay, a masterpiece of metalwork and marquetry. Its chief curiosity, although, is that by 1599 it had discovered its approach to Florence, within the armoury of Ferdinando of Medici — probably a diplomatic reward?
By the point of Akbar’s son Jahangir, who had a throne designed by a jeweller from Bordeaux, particulars in work present an increasing number of cultural imports alongside the house manufacturing: Ottoman velvets, Chinese language ceramics and brocades. Even unique animals had been cultural incomers: painters faithfully depicted a quite sad-looking zebra introduced by emissaries from Ethiopia, a turkey cock from North America, each feather and wobbly wattle fastidiously outlined.
This outreach to the world grew even additional within the reign of the third king featured on this present, Jahangir’s son Shah Jahan. Work present European merchants carrying a field of Japanese lacquer, an emerald from Colombia; one intriguing picture of a princely backyard picnic contains wine poured from a Persian ceramic ewer into Venetian goblets, with Chinese language porcelain on a Japanese desk, whereas a visitor sports activities a gown of Chinese language brocade. But all this cultural enter is melded into what’s now, by the primary a long time of the seventeenth century, a firmly established Mughal fashion, one which had begun to astonish the world.
Shah Jahan took the throne in 1628, after a brutal marketing campaign — regardless of the calm and magnificence of royal imagery right here, successions had been a bloody enterprise, mainly led to by murdering one’s many competing brothers and cousins. As soon as put in on the throne, nevertheless, he presided over Mughal cultural life at its very peak and is finest remembered, after all, for creating the Taj Mahal, mausoleum and loving tribute for his favorite spouse Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving beginning to their 14th baby.
The V&A’s curators give surprisingly offhand remedy to Mughal artwork’s most well-known and enduring monument. A short video, a mannequin, some clarification of the calligraphy on the tombs . . . that’s about it. The wall texts do make the purpose, nevertheless, that the Taj Mahal’s signature design, of white marble inlaid with semi-precious stones to create multicoloured flowers and leaves delicately curling and twining, gave beginning to a protracted stylistic historical past in Islamic artwork. (Even at the moment: have a look at the pillars, partitions and even the central courtyard of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, opened in 2007.)
Throughout Jahan’s 30-year reign, the Mughal courtroom turned a magnet for international ambassadors and potentates and guests of all kinds, drawn by its magnificence, its riches, its profitable market alternatives. Below his rule, the humanities flourished accordingly. So how does this story finish? The empire nonetheless had a protracted approach to go, after Jahan’s son Aurangzeb seized energy in 1658 whereas Jahan was in poor health, and initiated one other 50-year reign. (Jahan recovered, however Aurangzeb imprisoned him for the remainder of his life and clung on to the throne himself.)
Though Aurangzeb expanded the Mughal empire to its furthest extent, a protracted decline set in. The V&A decides to fade us out of the Golden Age with Shah Jahan, bringing their superb exhibition to a detailed whereas the going was good, however making the purpose that the artists and types of those three magnificent courts, roughly 1560-1660, had an everlasting legacy for hundreds of years afterwards, all through the subcontinent and the entire Islamic world, and past.
To Might 5, 2025; vam.ac.uk
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