Portrait of an Artist

The saying “The eyes are the window to the soul” is only a partial truth. It would be more accurate to say that the face is the still water that allows the careful viewer a glimpse into what lies beneath. However, as revealing as these waters can be, they also reflect the viewer’s gaze back, showing us an amalgam, something else entirely that cannot be simplified. Perhaps this is why portraiture has long been an obsession all over the world. 

Long before photography existed, the job of portrait artists was not just to replicate the esteemed persons they painted, but rather to render them as something greater than the sum of their parts. Though court paintings and aesthetic creations were in vogue, Emperors and kings commissioned works that documented their great exploits and displayed them in infallible countenances to establish themselves in the annals of history. 

Elaborate artworks were rarely made by a single artist, a planning artist also known as a tarh would conceive of the composition, while a junior artist brought it to life by applying color. Occasionally, a skilled portrait specialist would add the refined details of the primary figures. Few of these artists are remembered much less their assistants, however their traces remain in their works, melding into their subjects through paint.

Take this contemporary miniature portrait of Shah Jahan painted by Mohan Prajapati. The subject having long since passed can only be remembered by his descriptions and more importantly his depictions in the artworks that were commissioned on him. Centuries later Prajapati makes his ethereal depiction of the same monarch adding to it sensibilities that have been formed from from generations of skill and individual perspective. The figure that he renders is not simply Shah Jahan but an amalgam of every artist that has ever painted the emperor. 

When Shah Jahan rose to prominence he made attempts to remove any trace of his father Jahangir, including historical edits such as presenting himself as the successor to Akbar. Many have done similarly, trying to shape history through hands empowered by monarchy and governance. However, they are simply pebbles in the water, obscuring a reflection that remains unchanged leaving behind portraits that exist not only in pigment but in the mind itself. 

- Alex Joseph