This book highlights the specificities of Indian portraiture in sculpted and painted images, its relationship with divine images and aims, with the help of textual and epigraphical references, to understand the development of Indian imagery. It questions also the social and religious implications related to this issue.

The role of the portrait in India between 1560 and 1860 served as an official chronicle or eye-witness account, as a means of revealing the intimate moments of everyday life, and as a tool for propaganda. Yet the proliferation and mastery of Indian portraiture in the Mughal and Rajput courts brought a new level of artistry and style to the genre.

A catalogue to accompany an exhibit held at the museum from March to July 1997. Color reproductions of 83 paintings are presented chronologically rather than in the usual separate sections on Mughal, Deccani, Rijput, and Pahari traditions. Kossak, associate curator of Asian art at the museum, offers an introductory essay. Distributed in the US by Harry N. Abrams. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Published in conjunction with an exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Sept. 28, 2011-Jan. 8, 2012.

Fifty leaves that form the sumptuous Kevorkian Album, one of the world's greatest assemblages of Mughal art. -- Metropolitan Museum of Art website.

Patrick French brings one of the globe's most dynamic nations springing to life. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the country, sensitivity to its subtler nuances and a wealth of research.