ABSTRACT
All through his life, Akbar showed a great predilection for painting; he had, when a boy, enjoyed the teaching through a Persian master attached to his father’s court, and had proved a promising pupil. Akbar’s admiration for European paintings, which finds its reflection in Abul Fazl’s laudatory words, is probably due to a variety of causes. The art of portraiture was to be the main achievement of later Mogul painting. When comparing Mogul paintings even of the earliest phase with Persian miniatures we notice the painters’ increased interest in making obvious a third dimension, even if, in doing so, they run the risk of destroying the ornamental coherence of the picture plane. We remember that Christian images used to be copied, with greater or fewer modifications, by Akbar’s artists. It is in that sense that we have to view Akbar’s influence on Mogul painting.
