Deccani Painting

Deccani painting refers broadly to a wide range of sumptuous decorative and ornamental artworks and artifacts produced by court-supported artisans in five independent Muslim sultanates— Golconda, Bidar, Ahmadnagar, Berer, and principally Bijapur—in the southwestern region of India generally south of the Narbada River. The art movement emerged nevertheless from a rich cross section of cultural influences that reflected the region’s global status among merchants and traders and represented a bold, unprecedented cultural fusion. Decanni painting reflected elements drawn from Persia (Iran), northern Africa, southern and central Asia, and even central Europe. In addition, Decanni art brought together of a number of elements of religious art styles from the region, most notably Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, and Buddhist.

Brief History

"Deccan" refers to the region’s massive diamond-rich plateau. Indeed, that extensive mining enterprise was responsible for the economic prosperity, religious cohesion, military stability, and fabulous wealth that, for more than two centuries (roughly 1500 to 1700), made possible the sultanates’ generous support of the arts, including music, poetry, sculpture, even dance. It was in its way a kind of Indian version of the Renaissance, a flowering of the arts going on at the same time in Europe.

The earliest expressions of what would come to be called Decanni painting started, not surprisingly given the religious roots of the region, as sacred art that expressed the subjects appropriate to Islamic scriptural tradition. These artists were largely manuscript illuminators. In the late fifteenth century, these trained artists, assisted and advised by theological scholars, used painting in the service of enhancing the experience of Islamic holy texts, most notably the Quran. In their illuminations of these scriptural writings, these artists were modest in their ambitions, careful not to allow their work to distract from the experience of the holy writings themselves. Rather they realized in their work the allegorical figures drawn from the parables themselves. The images, in turn, were muted, subtly detailed, and colored largely in only blues and reds. The artists maintained a careful impersonal dynamic with their creation, maintaining a careful precision to their execution, abiding by a traditional sense of balance and symmetry between and among figures. The artwork, because of its small scale within the margins or on single sheets of a manuscript, represented painstaking care to create the intricate images as a way to sustain and elevate the experience of prayer.

Given the region’s cosmopolitan character, over the next century as a wide range of cultures influenced each generation of artisans, Decanni painting began to reflect a broader cultural grammar. In this, Decanni painting evolved into a distinctly Indian, rather than Islamic art. By the sixteenth century, artisans under the patronage of powerful sultans confident in their own regional identity and cultural integrity, began painting more secular subjects. Perhaps this golden age of Decanni painting is best represented by the works produced during the sultanate of Ibrahim Adil Shah II (1580–1627), a ruler of the Adil Shah Dynasty, himself an accomplished singer and musician as well as an artist, in the courts of Bijapur. The subject matter in these works turned to recording the lifestyles of the rich, the privileged, the Indian aristocracy that supported the arts themselves. Although the era saw the production of a wide range of artifacts—most notably, carved wooden statues, walking sticks, textiles, elaborate metal work, decorative screens and scrolls, as well as lavish jewelry and ornate domestic utensils and pottery—this golden era of Deccani painting is most identified with the production of miniatures, elegant paintings drawn to a smaller scale (roughly 1/6 scale) than traditional paintings. These works demanded precision and care in their execution. Despite their relatively small scale, these miniatures reward careful scrutiny (often high-end magnification) while at the same time maintaining the expectations of color tones, figure balance, depth and distance, and even perspective when viewed from a distance.

Overview

The signature works of Decanni miniatures explore, often intimately, the lives of the region’s wealthy. These capture moments of leisure, recreation, and relaxation. Unlike the earlier works defined by scriptural allegory and religious symbolism, these images are more romantic, more sensual. The figures, men and women, are recorded, for instance, strolling through their elaborate gardens, reclining on piles of cushions, playing musical instruments, engaged in courtly dancing, enjoying a lingering smoke from a shisha, savoring a ripe calamondin from great plates piled with fruit, riding grand muscled horses, as well far more intimate moments such as kissing or bathing. Appropriate to such earthier subject matter, the miniatures from this period extended considerably the color palette from the earlier era. These miniatures were realized in a rich variety of bright dramatic colors (most notably layers of bold whites and lustrous golds) that pop and give the images, whether people or trees or birds, a robust and lyric narrative. The human figures are slender, lithe, willowy with intense facial expressions, centered on their eyes, that convey a range of emotions and moods, which is remarkable given the small scale of the paintings.

The paintings of the Decanni era have gained significant attention from scholars in the West interested in expanding and deepening the cultural perception of Islam in a post-9/11 environment. Indeed, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City reopened its extensive Islamic wing to coincide with the 2011 commemoration of the September 11 attacks, the curators stressed the viability of Decanni painting as a critical element in understanding the evolution of Islamism as it expanded and even embraced a wide variety of alternative cultures, forging a cultural identity by reconciling elements of each. In bringing together the art and culture of Iran, west Asia, central Europe, northern Africa, with indigenous Indian elements, a concept known as syncretism, Decanni painting defined the golden age of medieval southern Indian art.

Bibliography

Chaitanya, Krishna. A History of Indian Painting: Manuscript, Moghul, and Decanni Traditions. Amazon Digital, 2014. Kindle file.

Chakraverty, Anjan. Indian Miniature Painting. New Delhi: Roli, 1996. Print.

Haidar, Navina Najat, and Marika Sardar. Sultans of the South: Arts of India’s Deccan Courts, 1323–1687. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art Press, 2011. Print.

Jain, P. C., and Daljeet Singh. Indian Miniaturist Painting: Manifestation of a Creative Mind. Noida: Brijbasi Art P, 2007. Print.

Kossak, Steven. Indian Court Painting: 16th–19th Century. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art Press, 1997. Print.

Mitchell, George, and Mark Zebrowski. Architecture and Art of the Deccan Sultanates. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999. Print.

Mitter, Partha. Indian Art. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.

Pande, Alka. Masterpieces of Indian Art. New Delhi: Roli, 2004. Print.