Basāwan, or Basāvan (flourished 1580–1600), was an Indian miniature painter in the Mughal style. He was known by his contemporaries as a skilled colorist and keen observer of human nature, and for his use of portraiture in the illustrations of ''

Akbarnama The ''Akbarnama'', which translates to ''Book of Akbar'', the official chronicle of the reign of Akbar, the third Mughal Emperor (), commissioned by Akbar himself and written by his court historian and biographer, Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak. It was ...

'',

Mughal Emperor The Mughal emperors ( fa, , Pādishāhān) were the supreme heads of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughal rulers styled t ...

Akbar Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...

's official Biography, which is seen as an innovation in

Indian art Indian art consists of a variety of art forms, including painting, sculpture, pottery, and textile arts such as woven silk. Geographically, it spans the entire Indian subcontinent, including what is now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, N ...

.Illustration from the Akbarnama: History of Akbar

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

Biography

Litte is known of the life of Basawan. He became a court painter for

, where he came under the influence of

Abd al-Samad 'Abd al-Ṣamad or Khwaja 'Abd-us-Ṣamad was a 16th century painter of Persian miniatures who moved to India and became one of the founding masters of the Mughal miniature tradition, and later the holder of a number of senior administrative rol ...

. Only four artists are commented on in the Ain i Akbari and it includes Sayyid Ali, Abd al-Samad, Daswanth and Basawan. His son

Manohar Das Manohar Das, also Manohar or Manuhar, (active 1582–1624) was an Indian Hindu painter in the Mughal style. Manohar's father Basawan was a master painter in the Mughal emperor's court, where Manohar grew up. His father most likely instructed h ...

succeeded him as court painter. His family still lives in their heritage home in Kala Mahal, Agra. Currently, the family is holding manufacturing and exports business of handmade carpets (Diamond Carpets).

Work

Over 100 paintings are attributed to Basawan. His earliest mention is found in an illustrated version of Tutinama c. 1556-61. Most of them are illustrations for manuscripts. In many of them, Basawan was the designer, in collaboration with a second artist who supplied the color. Among the works that can definitely be attributed to Basawan are illustrations for the ''Razmnama'', the ''

Akbar-nama The ''Akbarnama'', which translates to ''Book of Akbar'', the official chronicle of the reign of Akbar, the third Mughal Emperor (), commissioned by Akbar himself and written by his court historian and biographer, Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak. It was ...

'', the ''

Darab-nama The ''Darab-nama'' ( fa, داراب‌نامه) (Book of Daaraab) is a Persian language, Persian prose romance, written by the 12th-century writer Abu Tahir Tarsusi, in which the adventures of the Kayanian dynasty, Kayanid Iranian Kai Darab, King ...

'', the ''Baharistan of Jami'' and the ''Timur-name''. Basawan was one of the first Indian artists to be interested in western techniques, inspired by the European paintings brought to Akbar's court by Jesuit missionaries. It can be seen in his use of strong contrasts of light and shade, although Western influence is never predominant in his work. Basawan was also noted for his exploration of space, the delineation of his backgrounds, the strength of his colors, and the strong, moving characterizations of his subjects.

Abu al-Fadl 'Allami Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak, also known as Abul sharma, Abu'l Fadl and Abu'l-Fadl 'Allami (14 January 1551 – 22 August 1602), was the grand vizier of the Mughal emperor Akbar, from his appointment in 1579 until his death in 1602. He was the au ...

, historiographer for Akbar, wrote about Basawan: "In designing and portrait painting and colouring and painting illusionistically... he became unrivalled in the world"."Basavan", Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

Citations

References

*"Basavan", in ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 12 March 2009 from ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/54676/Basavan *Rizvi, S. A. A., "Basawan", ''

Academic American Encyclopedia ''Academic American Encyclopedia'' is a 21-volume general English-language encyclopedia published in 1980. It was first produced by Arête Publishing, the American subsidiary of the Dutch publishing company VNU'' Kister's Best Encyclopedias'', 199 ...

'', 1991 edition, volume 3, p. 101.

External links

The Emperors' album: images of Mughal India
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Basawan {{DEFAULTSORT:Basawan Indian male painters Mughal painters 16th-century Indian painters Indian portrait painters Painters from Uttar Pradesh