Artists’ Atelier
Artists’ Atelier
Fol. 195r from a manuscript of Akhlaq-i Nasiri
Pakistan, Lahore, ca. 1590–1595
Watercolours, gold, and ink on paper
AKM288.12
This illustration sheds light on the workings of courtly ateliers in Mughal India. Various specialized practitioners — scribes, painters, and a paper maker, among others — are engaged in the creation of manuscripts and single-sheet pictures, with a master instructing a young artist in the principles of the craft at the top of the composition. For Nasir al-Din Tusi, the hierarchical structure of such a studio is a metaphor for a functional society. In the surrounding text, from a section of the Akhlaq-i Nasiri on politics, the author states that “people are by nature civic creatures,” who are ennobled by living in a structured society with a firm ruler at its peak. Such a ruler is similar to a master artist who guides those below him, even though they may be “totally lacking in the capacity for invention.”