Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/358

 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. BOOK VII. 1621, and was completed in 1628. It is situated on the left bank of the river, in the. midst of a garden surrounded by a wall measuring 540 ft. on each side. In the centre of this, on a raised platform, stands the tomb itself, a square measuring 69 ft. on each side. It is two storeys in height, and at each angle is an octagonal tower, surmounted by an open pavilion. The towers, however, are rather squat in proportion, and the general design of the building very far from being so pleasing as that of many less pretentious tombs in the neighbourhood. Had it, indeed, been built in red sandstone, or even with an inlay of white marble like that of Humayun, it would not have attracted much attention. Its real merit consists in being wholly in white marble, and being covered throughout with a mosaic in " pietra dura " the first, apparently, and certainly one of the most splendid, examples of that class of ornamentation in India. 1 It seems that in the early part of the i/th century Italian artists, principally, apparently from Florence, were introduced into India, and, it has been said they taught the Indians the art of inlaying marble with precious stones. 2 At Fathpur- Sikri, examples occur of " inlay " as well as of " overlay," and in the gateway of the Sikandara tomb inlaid work is quite prevalent ; but in the time of Shah Jahan it became the lead- 1 For details of the decoration, see E. W. Smith's ' Moghul Colour Decoration of Agra,' pp. 18-20, and plates 64-77 ; ' Photographs and Drawings of Indian Buildings,' plates 12-30; or 'Journal of Indian Art and Industry,' vol. vi. pp. 90-94, and plates 59-66. 2 Although this was for a time hardly doubted, no very direct evidence was adduced to prove that it was to foreign Florentine artists that the Indians owe the art of inlaying in precious stones gener- ally known as work in "pietra dura." Austin or Augustin de Bordeaux is the only European artist whose name can be identified with any works of the class. He was employed by Sh^h Jahan at Delhi, and is supposed to have executed that mosaic of Orpheus or Apollo playing to the beasts, after Raphael's picture, which adorned the throne there, and was long in the Indian Museum at South Kensington, but was taken back and restored to its place by Lord Curzon. In 'The Nineteenth Century and After,' vol. iii. (1903) pp. 10396. Mr. E. B. Havell, of the Calcutta School of Art, has shown reason for ascribing this inlaid work to Arab and Persian origins, pointing to the "elaborate scrolls of con- ventional Arabian design," and the familiar Persian motifs, "such as rose- water vessels, the cypress," etc., which characterise the art. Up to the erection of the gates to Akbar's tomb at Sikandara in the first ten years of Jahangir's reign, A.D. 1605- 1615, we have infinite mosaics of coloured marble, but few specimens of " inlay." In I'timadu-d-daulah's tomb, A.D. 1615- 1628, we have both systems in great perfection. In the Taj and palaces at Agra and Delhi, built by Shah Jahan, A.D. 1628 - 1668, the mosaic has dis- appeared, being supplanted by the " inlay." It was just before that time that the system of inlaying called " pietra dura " was invented, and became the rage at Florence and, in fact, all throughout Europe ; but though during the reigns of the two last - named monarchs Italian artists were in their service, there is no definite evidence that they held influential posts, whilst artists from Shiraz, Baghdad, Samarkand and Kanauj are mentioned as of high reputation during the erection of the Taj Mahall, most probably designed by 'Ali Mardan Khan, a Persian refugee.