Rembrandt and the Inspiration of India
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About this book
This sumptuously illustrated volume examines the impact of Indian art and culture on Rembrandt (16061669) in the late 1650s. By pairing Rembrandts twenty-three extant drawings of Shah Jahan Jahangir Dara Shikoh and other Mughal courtiers with Mughal paintings of similar compositions the book critiques the prevailing notion that Rembrandt brought life to the static Mughal art. Written by scholars of both Dutch and Indian art the essays in this volume instead demonstrate how Rembrandts contact with Mughal painting inspired him to draw in an entirely new refined style on Asian paperan approach that was shaped by the Dutch trade in Asia and prompted by the curiosity of a foreign culture. Seen in this light Rembrandts engagement with India enriches our understanding of collecting in seventeenth-century Amsterdam the Dutch global economy and Rembrandts artistic self-fashioning. A close examination of the Mughal imperial workshop provides new insights into how Indian paintings came to Europe as well as how Dutch prints were incorporated into Mughal compositions.
