Practicing Success

Target Exam

CUET

Subject

Fine Arts

Chapter

The Deccani Schools of Painting

Question:

Which kingdoms in the plateau region of southern India nurtured and expanded the distinct school of court painting in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?

Options:

Mughal, Rajput, and Maratha

Vijayanagara, Bahmani, and Hoysala

Bijapur, Golconda, and Ahmadnagar

Chola, Chalukya, and Pallava

Correct Answer:

Bijapur, Golconda, and Ahmadnagar

Explanation:

Answer- Bijapur, Golconda, and Ahmadnagar
In the plateau region of southern India, the kingdoms of Bijapur, Golconda, and Ahmadnagar nurtured and expanded a distinct school of court painting.


The Deccani style of Painting was placed under the Indo-Persian art for long. It was considered to be Middle Eastern, Safavid, Persian, Turkish and even Mughal in origin. Art historians acknowledged its uniqueness but failed to recognise it as a full-fledged school, which was sustained by a class of rulers, who had their peculiar political and cultural vision. They hired and nurtured artists and commissioned works that enhanced their artistic sensibilities and specific requirements of governance in their kingdoms. The art of portraiture and representation of historical and religious figures are seen elsewhere in other contemporary schools of painting. Mughal portraiture, in this sense, was not wholly unique. We see such artistic inclinations in the Safavid and Ottoman Schools of Painting. The highly documentary nature of portraits is a singularly unique development seen extensively in the Asian Islamic art as also in the Mughal art in India.

In the plateau region of southern India, beyond the Vindhya mountain range, an endearing school of painting, which was distinct and strong, was nurtured and expanded under various Sultans of the Deccan in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.The kingdoms of Bijapur, Golconda and Ahmadnagar developed highly sophisticated and distinct school of court painting. Its unique sensuality and intense colours have strong affinity to regional aesthetics. The school preferred dense composition and attempted to create an aura of romance, which invariably expressed itself in an idiom that was eloquently natural and vivid.