The Emperor Shah Jahan on the Peacock Throne

~Meanings can be loosely associated with forms or they can be exact and concrete, and the lowest level of significance acquired in the daily life of a form often rises to become overt in a new context and even emblematic in its force. In the previous chapter, for instance, we saw how the relationships that sustained styles invested them with meaning and how these...

~~India from 1600 to 1750 was marked by courtly patronage of art, architecture, and design. The magnificent surviving civic and religious buildings and objects indicate the richness and variety of form and decoration within Indian material culture at this time. The Mughal emperors dominated the subcontinent, and their power, wealth,...