UCR Art Shah Jahan Question

Description

Part 1:Explore the image below and analyze how it conveys Shah Jahan’s power and authority. Be specific! (You may want to look at our discussion of Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaykh to Kings from the lecture as an example)(at least 250 words; 10 points)Note: Avoid simply describing the work or analyzing generally – make sure your post responds directly and specifically to the prompt.Europeans Bring Gifts to Shah Jahan, folio from the Padshahnama, 1657, ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper (231⁄16 × 141⁄2″)Part 2:Read through your classmates’ responses and engage with at least one of them. Is there anything you feel that they missed? Are there ways you could have improved your own response based on reading others’? (at least 50 words)Classmate 1:In the artwork above, Shah Jahan is shown in the center picture with all the people facing him. The rest of the people are off to the left and right sides of the artwork while he is centered which shows he is the main focus of the painting. His head is also surrounded by a halo exhibiting the idea that he is not a divine figure, but that he has been chosen by a divine force to rule as a king. In the painting, each person’s face is very clear and they have distinct clothes and faces. As a ruler, Shah Jahan wished that the workers who made his paintings showed faces of people who worked in the workshops, people of his lands, and in this particular painting, the faces of the Europeans he was negotiating and trading with. He wished of this to show his humanity and that he is not a divine figure. Showing distinct faces shows that he is human like the other figures in the painting and that he cares about the wellbeing of the people he has authority over. Another feature that conveys Shah Jahan’s high status and power is the symmetry of the painting. Both sides of the painting have equal amounts of people who are all facing him. Some of the figures are bringing him gifts such as Nanban lacquerware and others are holding their hands out to him which suggests they are open to him and respect his power as a king. Along with there being the same amount of people on both sides, Shah Jahan is at the center of the painting and is spaced out from everyone else which highlights him as a figure in the portrait. Him being in the center of the portrait, having all eyes on him, the symmetry of the painting, the gifts brought to him, and the distinctive faces of the people are all ways that Shah Jahan’s power and authority is portrayed in this particular painting. Part 3:In this lesson, we looked at portraits of a few different rulers. We saw that painted portraits are always constructions – never really candid or spontaneous – but that there are different ways to construct them. Think of the portraits we discussed of Jahangir and Raja Balwant Singh as two ‘types’ of portraiture – Jahangir’s portraits are highly symbolic and all about communicating things about Jahangir to the viewer; Balwant Singh’s are often simpler, less obviously symbolic, and more suggestive. Do you think one type is more honest than the other? Does one type reveal the character of the subject more effectively than the other? Explain your reasoning. (a paragraph)

Tags:
artwork

Shah Jahan

Hall of Public Audience

Padshahnama

hierarchical order

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