Abid son of 'Aqa Reza (Mughal, reign of Shah Jahan) Celebration of Shah Jahan's 46th solar birthday (from the Padshahnama) Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 1640 Edwin Binney 3rd Collection, 1990:352

Royal courts in many parts of South Asia maintained workshops of artists. Rajput and Pahari (Hill States) workshops were organized primarily as family occupations, with skills and styles passed from fathers to sons.

The lavishly sponsored Mughal painting workshop or tasvirkhana was based on Persian practices. Painters were supervised by a master artist who set parameters of style. Artists often collaborated on a painting, sharing tasks and skills. Senior artists devised compositions and gave finishing touches. Junior artists filled in and burnished layer upon layer of color. Apprentices ground pigments, boiled gum, and made brushes from the soft hair plucked from squirrels' tails. To produce fine details in a painting, a brush might have only a single hair.

Paper was prepared for painting by burnishing, or rubbing, until the surface was perfectly smooth. The artist then made an outline sketch in charcoal or red ink which was then covered over with a ground of translucent white. The faint outlines that showed through the white ground guided the next layer of underdrawing, which marked out more details in firm black lines. Beginning at this stage, after each application of paint, the painting was turned face down on a marble slab to be burnished with a polished stone. This process compacted the paper and the paint and created the smooth enamel-like finish common to these works.

Winged Elephants in a Landscape (Book of Dreams) Rajasthan, Mewar Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, ca. 1720 Edwin Binney 3rd Collection, 1990:621

Colors were prepared from powdered pigments mixed with gum. The pigments were made from a variety of materials—animal, vegetable, and mineral. Many of the colors were derived from precious materials from afar, such as blue azurite mined in Hungary and lapis lazuli from Afghanistan. Fine paintings and manuscripts were often embellished with gold. Gold was made to shine by burnishing the paintings from the front, commonly with the tusk of a boar.

Within the workshop, painters worked alongside other skilled practitioners of the arts of the book. There were calligraphers, who wrote the texts in an elegant hand. There were illuminators, who filled the margins and frontispieces with exquisite patterns. And there were binders, who sized and bound loose sheets between leather covers that were often gilded and tooled.

Patrons were stimulated by the Mughal model to command sumptuous illustrated manuscripts or unbound "sets" of painting illustrating not only religious, but historical, and literary themes. Royal libraries grew, and kings were expected to be connoisseurs.

The size and lavishness of a workshop depended on the patron's passion and purse. Artists were paid according to fixed scales, with bonuses for particular excellence. Artists might leave one atelier for another, by desire, force, or invitation, and this mobility contributed to the mingling of styles.

The artist's personal understanding of his subject, as well as his skill in portraying it, contributed to the success of his work.

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