Payag

[[File:The Siege of Kandahar. Attributed to Payag Mughal, mid-17th century. Opaque watercolor on paper. The Knellington Collection, Courtesy Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts.jpg|thumb|The failed [[Mughal sieges of Kandahar (1649–1653)|Mughal siege of Kandahar in 1649]]. Attributed to Payag. Mughal, mid-17th century. Opaque watercolor on paper. The Knellington Collection, Courtesy Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts.<ref name="Metro">{{cite book |last1=Welch |first1=Stuart Cary |title=India: art and culture, 1300-1900 |date=1985 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art : Holt, Rinehart, and Winston |location=New York |isbn=978-0030061141 |page=248 |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/met-publications/india-art-and-culture-1300-1900 |quote=If Murad's siege raised the spirits of his imperial patron, Payag's view of an episode in 1649, during the unsuccessful attempts to recapture strategic Kandahar must have lowered them. Although Murad was noted for his cheerful portrayals of grand events at court-and, we suspect, as a designer of architectural ornament, which he painted so inventively-Payag is admired for portraits of holy men and ravaged old soldiers, and for views of war in all its horror.}}</ref>]] '''Payag''' was a major Indian Hindu artist of [[Mughal painting]], in the 17th century.<ref name="Metro"/> He was noted for the dark realism of his paintings, including portraits of holy men and wounded soldiers, describing the horrors of war.<ref name="Metro"/>

Payag worked for several Mughal rulers, including emperors Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan. His career lasted about 70 years. He had a brother named Balchand, also a talented painter.<ref>{{cite web |title=Painting by Payag - "Shah Jahan on Horseback", Folio from the Shah Jahan Album - The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/451267 |website=www.metmuseum.org |language=en}}</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4"> File:Shah Jahan Riding Stallion.jpg|''[[Shah Jahan on Horseback]]'' by Payag.<ref>{{cite web |title=Painting by Payag - "Shah Jahan on Horseback", Folio from the Shah Jahan Album - The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/451267 |website=www.metmuseum.org |language=en}}</ref> File:Portrait of Islam Khan Mashhadi.jpg|Portrait of [[Islam Khan II]] Mashadi by Payag File:The Goddess Bhairavi Devi with Shiva MET DP257990.jpg|''The Goddess Bhairavi Devi with Shiva'', by Payag </gallery>

==References== {{reflist}}

[[Category:Year of birth unknown]] [[Category:Year of death unknown]] [[Category:17th-century Indian painters]] [[Category:17th-century Mughal Empire people]] [[Category:Painters from the Mughal Empire]]