Artist: Designer, probably
Ustad Ahmad; master architect, Abdul al-Karim; chief caligrapher, Amanat
Khan; (one of many) artists, Makramat Khan.
Title: Taj Mahal, Agra. Relief of a flower in the interior of the main
building.
Material: Marble
Site: Agra, India
Current Location: In situ
Period/Date: built 1632 - 1643, Mughal Dynasty under Emperor Shah Jahan
(r.1628-1658, d.1666).
Iconography/Iconology:
Stylistic Comments: Seen through out the building, reliefs, such as
this example of a raised flower in the interior of the main building, tell
of both the extremely detailed planning and enormous expenses lavished on
the structure's production. To carve this small flower in raised relief,
meant that the entire surface of the stone had to be removed around the
designer's layout, leaving enough matrix for only the flower and its stem.
The flower then had to be carved by someone who was obvioulsly a master
marble-carver and the rest of the surface flattened and polished. Because
of the labor involved, this is litertally the most expensive and painstaking
way of producing a design on the surface of the marble.