Detail: The exhibition features beautiful and detailed paintings and handicrafts created between the 1600s and 1800s in the area that we now call India. The artists and craftsmen created works that were commissioned by people in resource-rich environments, such as the Muslim Mughal court (1526-1858) and regional Hindu and Muslim courts. During this period, the whole of South Asia was colonised by armed European trading companies – primarily British. These environments also contained people who either commissioned or purchased miniature paintings and handicraft products.
During the majority of the period represented in the exhibition, the Mughal Empire came under attack from both native and foreign (Iranian and European) forces, and artists moved between studios in order to find new commissions. They created miniature paintings that captured fragments of India's multifaceted cultural history, from palaces to the jungle.
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