Crimson & Cobalt & Pink

Cobalt (medium, vivid — the cobalt-blue Mughal porcelain and the Persian-blue dome of the Mughal architectural tradition) and Pink (pale, delicate — the Mughal lotus blossom in the ornamental gardens and the most refined pink of the Mughal miniature border) create the most specifically Mughal Indian and most luxuriously refined warm-cool pair. Against Crimson's passionate Mughal imperial robe warm, this creates the most specifically Mughal miniature painting and most imperially Mughal palette.

The palette is the visual world of Mughal miniature painting — the most elaborate and most technically sophisticated painting tradition in the history of Indian art (Mughal miniature — the court painting tradition developed under the Mughal emperors of India — particularly under Akbar — 1556-1605 — who established the first imperial atelier — the Karkhana — with approximately 100 painters — and under Jahangir — 1605-1627 — whose patronage produced the most technically refined and most naturalistically sophisticated paintings of the entire tradition). The Mughal miniature palette: the deep vivid crimson of the Mughal imperial robe (the characteristic deep, vivid crimson-to-scarlet of the most formal Mughal imperial garments — depicted with the most precise and most laboriously ground natural pigments in the most famous Mughal miniature portraits — particularly in the Akbarnama and the Baburnama paintings of the most important Mughal historical manuscripts); the medium vivid cobalt of the Mughal blue-and-white ceramics (the specific medium, vivid cobalt blue of the Mughal blue-and-white pottery — directly inspired by Chinese Jingdezhen blue-and-white porcelain and produced at Multan, Lahore, and Delhi using the same cobalt-oxide underglaze technique); and the pale delicate pink of the Mughal lotus blossom (the most characteristic and most frequently depicted botanical motif in Mughal miniature painting — the lotus flower appearing in a characteristic pale, delicate, slightly warm pink in the most famous garden scenes of the Mughal miniature tradition).