The V&A announces details of a major new exhibition The Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence, which will present the monumental artistic achievements of the ‘Golden Age’ of the Mughal court (c. 1560-1660). Opening November 2024, the exhibition will celebrate the extraordinary creative output and internationalist culture of Mughal Hindustan during the age of its greatest emperors.
Across three sections, displayed chronologically, the exhibition will span the reigns of Emperors Akbar (r. 1556-1605) Jahangir (r. 1605-1627) and Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1658), with a particular focus on the craftsmanship, arts and creative outputs of the courts. Over 200 objects will be on display, including rarely shown paintings, illustrated manuscripts, brilliantly coloured carpets, and delicate textiles, as well as architectural pieces and vessels made of mother of pearl, rock crystal and jade, and precious metals.
The exhibition will include both famous and little-seen objects from the V&A, as well as loans from museums across the world. On display will be four rare folios from the colourfully illustrated volumes of the Hamza Nama, or 'Book of Hamza', commissioned by Akbar in 1570, on loan from the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, and the ‘Ames Carpet’ (c. 1590–1600), a woven carpet from the imperial workshops, on loan from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and on display in the U.K for the first time.
Susan Stronge, Curator of The Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence said: “This is the first exhibition to reveal the international art and culture of the Mughal court. Hindustani artists, Iranian masters and a few Europeans came together in the imperial workshops to create a new, hybrid art. We are pleased to display some of their greatest creations, many of which have never been exhibited before.”
The Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence will examine the extraordinary hybrid art created in the imperial workshops by Iranian and Hindustani artists and craftsmen working in the Persian-speaking court and producing work of unparalleled quality. The exhibition will also explore the influence of European art on the workshops, which were introduced to the court by Christian missionaries, foreign ambassadors, and merchants.
The Mughal dynasty was founded in 1526 when Babur, a Central Asian prince descended from Timur (d. 1405) and the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan (about 1162 – 1227) invaded the land he knew as Hindustan (the Indian subcontinent). He seized the Delhi Sultanate from its ruler and laid the foundations of what would become one of the world's great empires. The dynasty would become known by the Persian word for Mongol. Persian, the language of culture across Iran and Central Asia became the official language of the Mughal Empire. At its peak, the empire controlled a large portion of the Indian subcontinent, extending from Kabul in present-day Afghanistan to the borders of the Deccan sultanates in the south of the subcontinent, and from Gujarat in the west to present-day Bangladesh in the east.
Highlights of the exhibition will include: a unique wine cup crafted from white nephrite jade, made for Shah Jahan in 1657, shaped with the head of a ram and inscribed with his title, one of the most exquisite surviving objects from the Mughal court: two vivid paintings by Jahangir's famous artists depict exotic animals, a North American Turkey Cock, and an African zebra: on loan from the Al Sabah collection for the exhibition will be a number of a unique bejewelled objects, including a gold dagger and scabbard set with over two thousand rubies, emeralds and diamonds: four rarely seen folios from the colourfully illustrated volumes of the Hamza Nama, or 'Book of Hamza', commissioned by Akbar in 1570, on loan from the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna Also on loan from the Al Sabah collection will be an extremely important deep red engraved spinel of Jahangir and Shah Jahan and Ulugh Beg, Timur’s grandson.
Finally, on display in the U.K for the first time, will be the Ames carpet (c. 1590–1600), on loan from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. This carpet woven in the imperial workshops demonstrates the interconnectedness of art at the Mughal court. Scenes inspired by manuscript painting are combined with borders in purely Iranian style.