Psychology and the Arts ed. by David O’Hare (review)

136 Book Reviews for this book's illustrations reveal that ten of the miniatures shown are from one American collector, Edward Binney III, and one from another, J. K. Galbraith. The only two illustrations from the very rich collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London are in black and white. Dr Randhawa has been careful not to come between the reader and his chosen subject. An eminent horticulturist, Randhawa could have named all the flowers in the Mughal gardens which appear in so many of the plates. Instead, he has laid out his topic in a concise and systematic way, bringing to this task his experience as the author, in collaboration with J. K. Galbraith, of Indian Painting. Miniature painting began during the eighth century in the Pala dynasty as a kind of illumination to accompany sacred Buddhist texts. The earliest miniatures were painted not on paper, but on palm leaves. The rise of Muslim supremacy in northern India stopped temple building but encouraged miniature painting. By the fourteenth century, Jain miniatures had become important, and artists did their best work not merely for Hindu religious texts but to illustrate contemporary epic novels. Emperor Akbar, the third Mughal Emperor, who reigned for 51 years, succeeded in annexing what had hitherto been a Hindu religious art and harnessing it to the purposes of imperial aggrandizement. His atelier of more than 100 Hindu artists was directed by two Persian master painters who have left their stamp on Mughal miniatures down to our day. Akbar was illiterate, but his collection of miniatures served as a chronicle of both his mighty deeds and his wide interests. The Mughals were enlightened and tolerant Muslims, and Akbar even commissioned an illustrated copy of a Hindu epic at 400,000 rupees. It was characteristic of the great emperor that he knew how to find talent in unlikely places. His chief artist for this particular commission was Daswanth, son of a palanquin bearer, whom Akbar 'discovered' while Daswanth was still a young boy. The example of Akbar encouraged the rise of provincial centers of miniature painting in Golkonda, Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, Oudh and Hyderabad. Within the palace itself, the court painters continued to mirror faithfully the magnificent and pleasure-loving successors of Akbar. By this time the first European collectors had come to appreciate Mughal miniatures. Paradoxically, miniatures flourished more among the iconoclastic Muslims than amongst the image-worshipping Hindus. But Mughal painters had redoubtable rivals amongst the Rajput painters, who were inspired by the loves of Krishna and Radhah and by their concurrents in the Punjab schools such as Kangra and Pahari. Though this is essentially an aesthetic and historical account of the Indian miniature, and discussion of technique is merely incidental, Indian Miniature Painting is a book for the artist as well as the art teacher. No painter can fail to be inspired by the exemplary miniature painting reproduced here. Reviewed by Carson I. A. Ritchie, 18Carston Close, Lee Green, London SEI2 8DZ, U.K. Psychology and the Arts. David O'Hare, ed. The Humanities Press, New Jersey, 1981. 335 pp. Cloth, $40.00. ISBN: 0-8557-958-3. In his introductory chapter O'Hare says he opted for diversity because too much order, arising from the imposition of classification schemes, would probably have led to a loss of 'mutual relevance'. Given the variety of topics and viewpoints in the eleven chapters that make up this book, I doubt that he had any choice in the matter. O'Hare adopts George Dickie's 'institutional' definition of the 'art world' in terms of the behaviour (O'Hare's italics) of artists and art appreciators as a "workable starting point for drawing the boundaries of an empirical psychology of the arts." Chapter 2 by Martin Lindauer deals with the phenomenology of aesthetic experience (my italics). Chapter 3 by Hans Eysenck is devoted to the study of aesthetic preferences and individual differences from the standpoint of experimental aesthetics. Having penetrated thus far into the contents, it came as no surprise to discover that the chapter by Eysenck (arch-critic of psychoanalysis) was followed with one by Pavel Machotka, who expounds a psychodynamic theory of aesthetic choice. The remaining...