The Transmission of the Visual Traditions of the Herat School to Mughal Painting in India and the Role of Timurid Artists in the Formation of Mughal Art

Abstract

Mughal painting in India is regarded as one of the most distinguished pictorial traditions of the Islamic world, whose origins are profoundly connected to the visual traditions of Iran, particularly the Herat School. However, in much of the existing scholarship, this relationship has been explained as a linear and one-directional influence, and the active role of Timurid artists in the processes of transmission, reproduction, and transformation of these traditions has received comparatively little attention. The central problem of this study is to elucidate how the visual traditions of the Herat School were transmitted to Mughal painting and to examine the role of Timurid artists as cultural mediators in the formation of Mughal art. The objective of this article is to analyze the process through which the visual traditions of the Herat School were transferred to the Mughal court in India, with particular emphasis on the role of migrant Timurid artists, and to clarify the relationship between continuity and transformation in the formation of the independent identity of Mughal painting. The present research adopts a qualitative approach and is based on a descriptive–analytical and comparative methodology. The data were collected through library research and the examination of authoritative Persian and Western sources, and representative examples of paintings from the Herat School and early Mughal works—especially from the reigns of Humayun and Akbar—have been comparatively analyzed. The theoretical framework of the study is grounded in cultural transmission theory, intervisuality, and the concept of continuity and rupture in art history. The findings indicate that the visual traditions of the Herat School were transferred to Mughal painting through the migration of Timurid artists and the institutionalization of royal workshop structures. This transmission was not a form of passive imitation but rather a dynamic and creative process in which fundamental Herat elements—such as balanced composition, line-oriented design, and the logic of color organization—were preserved, while, in interaction with the cultural and political context of India, they underwent transformations including a tendency toward realism, the articulation of individuality, and a redefinition of the function of the image. Mughal painting thus emerged from an intercultural dialogue between the Herat tradition and the indigenous conditions of India, acquiring an identity that is at once independent and deeply rooted in the Timurid heritage.