Ustad Mansur

Ustad Mansur (died 1624) was a seventeenth-century Indian painter and naturalist who served as a Mughal court artist.

[1] A single miniature showing 'Babur meeting his sister' (folio 8, National Museum) is attributed to Mansur but he otherwise finds no mention in Babur's memoirs (Baburnama).

The British Museum's copy of the Akbarnama (1604) includes some folios (35,110a,110b and 112a) where his name is prefixed with "ustad" (=master), indicating his rise to excellence.

[3] His Veena-player (c. 1595) and coronation portrait of Jahangir (c. 1605, made along with the artist Manohar) are early works.

[7] Several other signed works, such as one of the Siberian crane (now no longer a winter migrant to India) and the other of a Bengal florican are in the Indian Museum, Kolkata.

[10] In terms of style, Mansur's illustrations focus on detail with a single bird dominating the composition.

The Siberian crane painting was made well before it was formally described and given a binomial name by Peter Simon Pallas in 1773.

[15] The Siberian crane painted on paper is extremely detailed showing the wrinkles on the bare skin, the legs and a small feather stuck to the claw.

On examining the detail through a lens, he was inspired to move away from oil on canvas to gouache on paper.

Other artists included Abu'l Hasan, Farrukh Beg, Govardhan, Inayat, Manohar, Muhammad Nadir, Murad and Pidarath.

The painting is highly detailed and is presumed to be an Indian chameleon on account of the highly detailed view of the feet of the animal showing each foot exhibiting "fused digits in opposed groups", a lighter band by the edge of the mouth, and a line of white scales on the underside of the belly.