Indian Book Painting

The work, THE JAHANGIR ALBUM, which is the subject of this book was, owing to an accident, wrongly placed in the Map Department of the Prussian Library in Berlin and there it remained, unused until 1926 when it was first discovered by Ernst Kuhnel and Hermann Goetz, in spilt of the value for the history of the art and civilization of Muhammadan India. It stands out clearly through its careful arrangement and large size (40 x 53 cm) from most of the similar collections, with which, however, it is on the whole connected by the arrangement
of its content. Here, as in other such albums, are specimens of writing, miniatures, and copper-plate engravings pasted together, but besides that, all the surrounding margins of the pages are enriched with fine paintings in gold. By this lucky accident the editors had their attention drawn to this important monument of Indian miniature painting which had for long been unknown, and they published this present volume to make it accessible to a wider circle of scholars, art historians, art lovers, and general readers. They hoped from their experience in the field, that their work would, in more than one respect, be of use for the study of the last good period of Indian art under the Mughal Emperors. As it was wholly concerned with unpublished material, special attention had
to be paid to the reproductions of the paintings.