The Brush of Insight

"Over the course of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Mughal court painters evolved from being mere illustrators of manuscripts and albums to mediating imperial visionary experience, assuming novel roles as imperial intimates. In Agents of Insight, Yael Rice traces this shift, demonstrating how royal artists created a new visual economy that featured highly naturalistic royal portraits, depictions of the emperors' dreams, and close, documentary studies of courtly gifts and rarities"--