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Bishandas

Mughal miniature painter From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bishandas
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Bishandas, also Bishan Das or Bishn Das, was a 17th-century Mughal painter at the court of the Mughal emperor Jahangir (1569–1627), specializing in portraits. Though little is known of Bishandas’ life, his name suggests he was a Hindu, like several others in the imperial workshop.

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Bishandas had the reputation of being unequalled for his ability to create a realistic likeness of his models.[1] He created realistic court and battle scenes. Jahangir especially sponsored realistic paintings and accurate portraiture.[2] He praised Bishandas as "unrivalled in the art of portraiture".

Jahangir was so keen on obtaining realistic depictions of his contemporaries, possibly as a way to better understand their character and intentions, that in 1613 Bishandas was sent to accompany on a diplomatic mission to Persia led by Khan ‘Alam,[3] to paint the portraits of Shah Abbas I of Persia (1571–1629) and other leading Persian figures such as Abbas's second son Soltan Mohammad Mirza, Saru Taqi or Isa Khan.[4][5] There he was so successful that he remained until 1620, and on his return Jahangir gave him an elephant.[6]

The portraits of the period are known to have been painted from life, because of the direct sketches made of their subjects, and because of the realistic, non-idealized, style their adopted. Bishandas was clearly influenced by the realistic European portraits he had seen in miniatures and engravings.[5] Still, his creations were to some extent hampered by technical conventions, such as the regular need for full-length portraits, which gave less importance to the depiction of the face itself compared to European portraits, or the regular requirement to paint in profile.[5]

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