THIS WEEK'S BOOKS
THE State Library at Berlin has long been known to collectors of Mogul miniatures, but a new album of the Emperor Jehangir is indeed treasure trove. Messrs. Kulmel and Guetz have published a wholly delightful volume of their find in Indian Book Painting (Kegan Paul, £5 5s.). There are twenty-eight coloured and many uncoloured plates whose re- production cannot be too highly praised. Indeed, the book is a joy to all those who are interested in this fascinating period of Indian art. The authors do less than justice, per- haps, to the artistic if bibulous Jehangir, who after all was responsible for what may be said to be one of the greatest schools of miniature painters in the world ; but their mono- graphs on the social background of the portraits and their history of Persian painting are very satisfactory, as is also their interesting appendix on the Jesuits at the Mogul Court. The seed of Tamerlane had a vein of mysticism that con- trasted with the martial qualities which gave them the sceptre of the Eastern world, and it was this love of beauty in their complex natures which expressed itself not only in the paintings of Jehangir's school, but in the imperishable marble of
Shahjehan. * * * *
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