Art

The Song dynasty in China and the Mughal period in India occurred almost 150 years apart, but they triggered a cultural renaissance that defined the artistic landscape of both countries. This paper will examine the philosophical narrative in the art of both cultures to highlight the similarities and differences between the Song dynasty in China and Mughal reign in India. In this paper I will compare and contrast two paintings from these cultures, Fan Kuans Travelers among Mountains and Streams and Hamzas Spies Scale the Fortress from Akbars Hamza-nama.

The Song dynasty was one of the most dynamic eras of Chinese history. Occurring between the tenth and late thirteenth century, it was a time of economic prosperity. It gave birth to a culture of increasing refinement and scholarship with a focus on history, literature and a revival of Confucianism, which became known as Neo-Confucianism.  The Song dynasty was also a time of technological advancement and the development of urban centers. From iron ore extraction to infrastructure development, economic prosperity resulted in increased patronage for artists, performers and thinkers, particularly in the court and the cities.

In terms of art, the Song dynasty witnessed the rise of landscape painting as an independent genre inspired the teachings of Neo-Confucianism, that of an all-embracing explanation of the universe and becoming one with nature. Most landscape artists were urban court painters, professionals, scholars and officials their audience too comprised of the same milieu. Song landscape artists made close studies of nature and used their paintings as a way to warn against the negative effects of industrial development on the environment.
It is in this context that we find one of the great masters of Song landscape in the eleventh century, Fan Kuan. Not much is known about Fan Kuans early life. He is believed to have modeled his early works after the artist Li Cheng. He devoted his art to the veneration of nature and spent the latter half of his life as a recluse in the mountains of Northern China that he had immortalized in his paintings. A comment attributed to Fan Kuan sheds light on his disposition. He is believed to have said, My predecessors always found their methods in natural phenomena. So for me to take people as my teachers cannot compare with learning from natural phenomena. Better still would it be to learn from my heart-mind.

Fan Kuans Travelers among Mountain and Streams (Image-1) is a hanging scroll, measuring 6  ft by 2  ft. It is an almost monochromatic work in ink and color on silk. It is part of the permanent collection at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan. The composition unfolds vertically in three stages. In the extreme foreground, we see a low-lying group of rocks at the bottom. Just above the rocks in the middle ground, travelers are crossing the mountain pass through the copse of trees. We also see some variation in the form of a waterfall and medium size rock formations as well as the rooftop of a temple rising above the trees. In the background, rising out of the mist are the massive mountains that appear to overshadow the entire scene.
The painting forces the eye to move from bottom to top, taking in the scenes as separate narratives, but with the sense of a shared destination. The miniscule figures of the travelers in the middle, the dense foliage of the trees and texture patterns of the rocky surfaces are painstakingly detailed. The mountains are overwhelming in their beauty, terrifying in their massiveness, and unyielding in their purpose as the singular force of power. This landscape is not a simple depiction of nature rather it is a sophisticated homage to the dominance of nature over man, evoking a spiritual connection with the universe. According to Thorp and Vinograd, the hierarchy in the painting provides a systematic account of the connections between things that may be related to contemporary thinkers who sought common underlying principles in moral and physical realms.

The Mughals ruled India from late fifteenth to mid-nineteenth century. The Mughal emperors were the last in a line of Persian rulers to invade India and placed their mark on the art and architecture of the Indian Sub-continent. The Mughal dynasty is exemplified by its aesthetically minded rulers who were poets and romantic by nature. Under their rule, the style of art permeated from great cities to the tiniest jade pins used for their turbans. Their Islamic beliefs mean that nature was the underlying principle in their art each emperor found expression through the artists and craftsmen that they patronized. The Mughal style highlights the remote, the unknown, the fantastic and the unattainable.

The third Mughal emperor, Akbar, ruled from 1556 to 1605 and succeeded in extending control over most of Northern India. Akbar was obsessed with the Utopian idea of Muslims and Hindus living in familial accord and implemented many reforms to create a harmonious social landscape for both cultures. He even married a Hindu Rajput princess in a dynastic marriage to gain the support of the powerful Rajputan warriors in his quest for unification of India. His time is considered the golden age of the Mughal Empire. Akbars court was a cosmopolitan one with representatives from different countries and religions present alongside poets, philosophers, musicians, artists and merchants. Akbar was an important patron of the arts his legacy continues to this day because of his support of artists provided a visual narrative of his time. As a child, Akbar had worked with Persian artists and learnt the delicacies of linear graces and harmonious restraint. However, due to the dynamic and often turbulent nature of his rule, the art from Akbars court reflects a more energetic narrative.

Hamza-nama is an excellent example of the style of art prevalent in Akbars court. It is the largest and most extraordinary Mughal manuscript of all time and illustrates the adventures of Amir Hamza, an uncle of the Prophet Muhammad. The work was commissioned in 1567, a vast copy in twelve unsewn volumes containing fourteen hundred paintings in total that took fifteen years to complete. The manuscript was organized episodically each text page includes a formal opening and the corresponding painting defines an episodic structure for the story as a whole. The text was written on the back so that the painting could be displayed as it was recited. It is believed that the compositions were drawn by Mir Sayyid Ali and Abd as-Samad with the help of fifty or more recruits.

One well known episodic illustration is titled Hamzas Spies Scale the Fortress (Image-2). The illustration is painted with gouache on cotton cloth. It measures about 76 by 61cm and is part of the permanent exhibition at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria. In the painting we see Hamzas spies scaling a fortress wall and surprising some men who are sleeping. It is a busy scene as one man climbs a rope while another beheads a figure in yellow and lifts the head aloft. Even the sleeping men on the fortress walls appear to be exuding energy despite the fact that they are sleeping. Their bodies writhe sensuously against a backdrop that echoes the romantic nature of the setting. Monkeys and bird peek through the dense grove of trees below the forest, which is illuminated against a dark background.

The entire painting uses gem-like colors with the ruby, emerald, turquoise and opal being the dominant hues in this particularly illustration. Indian art in the past had been produced on walls and palm leaves. The Mughals brought with them paper and painting techniques from Persia that allowed artists to produce jewel-toned paintings of unsurpassed beauty. We see evidence of this style in Hamzas Spies as each minute detail is clarified using exact color from the concentric patterns on the fortress walls to ruffled edges of the birds feathers as they embark on flight.

Unlike Chinese art, the perspective in Mughal art does not follow a linear pattern. The spatial landscape is not three dimensional and the scene appears to unfold in flat geometric shapes and arabesque patterns. While the technique is Persian, the sensibilities in the painting are not. In Persian art, the blood would have been discreet and decorative. In this painting, the beheading is gory as blood gushes down from the severed head on to the yellow covering before dipping down the towers jeweled walls. The spy is almost gleeful as his sword bends back, but is ready and coiled for another strike. Akbars artists successfully translated their patrons energy into the illustration, depicting crowds, built structures and nature which provide a sensory experience of his reign, beyond the verbal narration of a popular story.

The arts of China and India are very different from a cultural perspective, but share some sensibilities in that the selected works represent our current understanding of their artistic styles. Landscape artists from the Song dynasty celebrated natures dominance over man, while Mughal artists from Akbars court used colors to convey a sensual and sensory narrative. The underlying similarity between the two regions is the sophistication of artistic endeavors during the Song and Mughal dynasties. In their respective times, both dynasties increased patronage of the arts and provide a platform for artists to not only undertake projects that would fulfill a cultural need, but also create an artistic legacy for their respective empires.