Draft: this lesson was written with AI help and has not yet been read by a human editor.
1 What your class asks
This lesson asks you to identify and explain ways in which artistic traditions in different times and places have been maintained, adapted or appropriated. The museum links a record of carpets that travelled into European paintings and a record of one historian's argument about borrowed architecture; the other traditions your class brings. 1
Curriculum expectations, with their official codes
- D3.1 identify and explain some of the ways in which artistic traditions in a variety of times and places have been maintained, adapted, or appropriated […]
2 Before you start
A thought to carry into the lesson.
3 The lesson
What travels, and what is changed on arrival?
Look at the expectation: it names three things that can happen to a tradition. Take one example and ask which of the three the record describes, and what the record says that supports your answer.
Go deeper
Milo Cleveland Beach, in the record on Mughal painting, describes a tradition that arrived and was changed. The emperor Akbar placed the Iranians Mir Sayyid Ali and Abd al-Samad in charge of the painting studios, yet what emerged was a new style mixing Hindu (Rajput) and Muslim Indian elements with those of Safavid Iran 2. Persian works and European prints served as models, and European prints were the source of the new techniques of shading 3 4. The record on Oriental carpets in Renaissance painting is much shorter: it gives only that Islamic carpets appear in European paintings from the fourteenth century onwards, and that some patterns are named after the painters 5.
Often misunderstood
A reader may take "borrowed" to mean copied. Rezavi's chapter holds that Indo-Muslim architecture borrowed heavily from Iranian, Transoxanian and regional Indian traditions, and that the borrowing grew much heavier after the Mughal dynasty was founded 6. His conclusion adds that the beauty of Mughal architecture came from synthesising these borrowings intelligently with indigenous elements, best seen in the Taj Mahal, and the record marks this as his view 7.
Think about it
The expectation names three things that can happen to a tradition: it can be maintained, adapted or appropriated. Beach says that what emerged in the Mughal studios was a new style 2, and Rezavi says Indian architects borrowed heavily from Iran 7. For one of the two, which of the three words fits best according to its author, and which of his sentences is your evidence?
Into the museum
- Mughal painting: the Iranian masters, the new style, and the European prints behind the shading.
- Iranian Influence on Medieval Indian Architecture: Rezavi's argument, from the Delhi Sultanate to the Mughals.
- Oriental carpets in Renaissance painting: a short record of carpets seen in European paintings.
- Taj Mahal: the building where Rezavi finds the blend of Iranian and local elements at its best.
Try this
Read Oriental carpets in Renaissance painting and Iranian Influence on Medieval Indian Architecture. Write one sentence on what moved in each, and one on who says so.
4 Check yourself
Nothing here is marked or sent anywhere. It is for you.
In your own words: what does Oriental carpets in Renaissance painting have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
Carpets in European pictures. The record describes the appearance of Islamic carpets in European paintings from the fourteenth century onwards. They document the movement of carpets between East and West, and some patterns are named after the painters. What can a carpet painted in a European picture tell you about how objects and patterns travel between places?
In your own words: what does Iranian Influence on Medieval Indian Architecture have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
Borrowing a plan, adding a place. Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi argues in a 2002 chapter that Indo-Muslim architecture borrowed heavily from Iranian, Transoxanian and regional Indian traditions, and much more heavily after the Mughal dynasty was founded. He notes that the Quwwat al-Islam mosque (c. 1197) followed the Seljuq four-iwan plan with modifications. He concludes that the beauty of Mughal architecture came from synthesising these borrowings with indigenous elements; this is his view. What does a builder keep, and what does a builder change, when borrowing a plan?
I can now
Notes
- 1. Ontario Ministry of Education, The Ontario Curriculum: The Arts
- 2. Milo Cleveland Beach, The Grand Mogul: Imperial Painting in India 1600–1660 (Williamstown, Mass.: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1978), p. 16
- 3. Milo Cleveland Beach, The Grand Mogul: Imperial Painting in India 1600–1660 (Williamstown, Mass.: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1978), p. 18
- 4. Milo Cleveland Beach, The Grand Mogul: Imperial Painting in India 1600–1660 (Williamstown, Mass.: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1978), p. 20
- 5. Wikidata
- 6. Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi, 'Iranian Influence on Medieval Indian Architecture', in A Shared Heritage, ed. Irfan Habib (2002), p.127
- 7. Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi, 'Iranian Influence on Medieval Indian Architecture', in A Shared Heritage, ed. Irfan Habib (2002), p.140