Bishandas

Bishandas (also Bishan Das, Bishndas, Bishn That Beshandas, Bishnandas, Vishnudasa, Vishnu Dasa; * unknown; † after 1650 ) was an important painter of miniatures in the Indian Mughal Empire. He is considered one of the best Mughal portraitists of his time. Bishandas was the nephew of the painter Nanha. Its name is an indication that he probably belonged to the Hindu faith.

Life

He worked from about 1590 to the studio of the Mughal Emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605 ). To the maximum fame he reached under Akbar's successors Jahangir (r. 1605-1627 ), who knew how to appreciate him as an outstanding portraitist. Jahangir sent Bishandas in 1613 with an embassy to the court of the Persian Shah Abbas I to Isfahan to produce portraits of the ruler and his followers. After his return in 1620 he was rewarded by the Mughal Emperor with an elephant. Bishandas activity ended in 1650, its date of death is unknown. A portrait of him is preserved by the miniaturist Daulat, who represented him in an edge painting of Gulshan - album ( Muraqqa -e- Gulshan, 1605 ).

Services

Bishandas individual style is characterized by exactly least observed physiognomic details. The realistic representation of his characters, he scored less by shading and spatial effect as through gestures and detailed facial features. In this he differed from previous portrait artists, reproductions facial features more schematically. The portraits of figures he often summed up into groups, a feature that is recognizable in his late works, to an increasing degree. Among his most famous works is the miniature Birth of a Prince ( 1620 ), an illustration to Jahangir's biography Jahangirnama.