ARTS
To Skelton, with scholarship
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`I discovered new vistas... that felt like re-visiting a gorgeous, familiar garden and chancing upon new species in bloom.'
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SCHOLAR-CURATOR Robert Skelton of London's Victoria and Albert Museum is an iconic figure in the field of Indian art of the Sultanate and Mughal periods. This brilliant volume, to mark his 75th birthday in June 2004, yokes together personal memoirs, in-depth insights into rare intelligence, and seminal research papers, all in tribute to this ever-generous catalyst and informal guru.
Between its covers, we discover Skelton as a friend, philosopher and guide to a whole generation of global chelas. And an amazing curator from the time he joined the museum's old Indian section in 1950 to his retirement as its Keeper of Indian Art in 1988. Among his lauded acquisitions at the museum, Shah Jahan's jade cup holds pride of place. But his other claims to fame include devising the brilliant, comprehensive exhibition "Indian Heritage: Court Life and Arts under Mughal Rule" for the 1982 London Festival of India.
Treasure trove
This extraordinary volume for an unusual man is a treasure trove for the inquiring mind. Between its covers, I discovered new vistas on Mughal painting and the decorative arts (c. 1550-1850) that felt like re-visiting a gorgeous, familiar garden and chancing upon new species in bloom. A riveting experience, beyond doubt.
Through the eyes of Pramod Chandra (formerly of Mumbai's Prince of Wales Museum, now at Harvard University), we encounter Skelton as a scholar whose "connoisseurship, combined with high scholarship, established an understanding of style not seen before." Medieval Indian historian Simon Digby recalls his first foray into Mughal India with Skelton, and a magical moment as they chanced upon a painted female dancer in profile on a rooftop vault at Gwalior's Man Mandir, where they least expected it. Stuart Cary Welch, Curator Emeritus of the Harvard University Art Museum, summons up their shared devotion to Indian painting and prized experiences, as he sums up Skelton as not a mere academy, but a university! Each of the writers, distinguished in their own right, pay glowing tribute to the man who shaped generations of Mughal scholars.
With Skelton's human face thus established, we plunge into an ocean of visually illustrated essays that simultaneously provoke, stun and tease thought. Among the most outstanding of the 24 pieces, to my mind, are Welch's brilliant, insight-filled piece on "Zal in the Simurgh's Nest", a small-sized painting for a Shahnama for Emperor Humayun. He reveals that both the white-haired Zal and Humayun have links with Kabul, where the work — delicately celebrating flora and fauna — probably originated. With great conviction, he even identifies the original painter, Mir Sayyid Ali, whose work Welch studied for years.
The Oxford Ashmolean Museum's senior assistant keeper Andrew Topsfield's essay on "The Kalavants on their Durrie: Portraits of Udaipur Court Musicians, 1680-1730" proves just as brilliant. It brings us face to face with legendary musicians like Tansen in a 1580 Mughal portrait, visually recapturing experts like Kan, Hasu and Miyan at baithaks down the years — as talented youth, followed by grey-bearded portraiture as their musical expertise matured. This visual journey into realms almost verging on folklore is engaging — as the maestros play in the dazzling gardens, or on a royal barge at night.
Another irresistible essay is "The Cartography of Power: Mapping Genres in Jodhpur Painting" by Debra Diamond, assistant curator at Washington D.C.'s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. She explores the outcome when court artists of Maharaja Man Singh's atelier represent the Mahamandir township, appropriating visual conventions from devotional painting, pilgrimage maps, and town plans as genres. Her conclusions are worth debating and engaging with.
A heartfelt gift
This collection is as outstanding for its glittering alumni from the unofficial Skelton "school" and its dazzling production values as for its breathtaking range of scholarship. As I read it from cover to cover over weeks, I stopped to mull over arguments presented, discoveries shared, visuals analysed. And I silently wondered how Skelton, as guru to generations of Mughal art scholars, would have reacted to each.
For, the range explored covers Krishnalila mural paintings at Karwar, a rare 17th-Century Deccani kalamkari, the kundan technique in Indian jewellery, a Safavid-style lacquer pen-box by Manohar, the Birla Razmnama, Devi Mahatmya paintings from Akbar's time, clarifications about Emperor Jehangir's brilliantly-assembled scrapbook of images and calligraphy, and even the "Moghuleries" at Vienna's Schonbrunn Palace. In each case, the honorand is garlanded with a profound critique, lovingly detailed, adding depth to the field. And no wonder, since the contributors include lauded scholars such as Rosemary Crill, B.N. Goswamy, Ebba Koch, Daniel Ehnbom, Manuel Keene, Shridhar Andhare and J.P. Losty.
When the last page was turned, I was deeply moved by this heartfelt gift to Skelton who, in the words of the editors, was unfailingly generous "with his prodigious store of knowledge, insights and intuitions, imparted both in his written work and public lectures, but still more through his eloquent flow of conversation." A remarkable tribute to a brilliant scholar-curator, much loved as an equally fine individual.
Arts of Mughal India: Studies in Honour of Robert Skelton, edited by Rosemary Crill, Susan Stronge, and Andrew Topsfield, Victoria and Albert Museum/ Mapin Publishing, 2004, p.308, hardcover, price not stated.
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