Indian miniature painting Elephant offwhite

India is a country historically and culturally very rich and prolific, with a wide variety of art objects in which we find ancient know-how, for example in the painting arts.

Indian art objects: miniature paintings

Indian painting has a long history although few works have been through time.

Miniature painting is many centuries old in India, inspired by the Persian and Mughal arts, it is a traditional painting technique used to illustrate books or as independent work. Miniature paintings were also influenced by Indian Hindu, Jain and Buddhist arts when they were developed under the Mughal Empire and persisted during the Sikh and Muslim court, who had already a tradition of miniature art.

It is an art of painting very fine and delicate on fabrics or applied on the walls of the palace, representing animals, plants and scenes of court life or historical events with landscapes of mountain in Mughal miniatures or epic events in Rajput miniatures.

Nowadays, miniature paintings are still widely used in India in Rajasthan, particularly in the main city Jaipur, where perfect copy of old paintings with traditional methods are made, but also where modern elements and techniques are introduced. This art and its ancient techniques go on being passed from generation to generation in families of artists.