Translating India: Mughal Art and French Knowledge Production in the Eighteenth Century

FAIN: FEL-268433-20

Chanchal Dadlani
Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, NC 27109-6000)

Research and writing of a book on art commissioned and collected in India by the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Gentil (1726-1799) and its importance for European knowledge about the Subcontinent in the 18th century.

This project examines the art collection of Jean-Baptiste Gentil, an officer of the French East India Company who lived in Mughal India from 1752-78. It focuses on a set of illustrated works that were co-produced by Gentil and a select group of artists. Moving beyond biographical or stylistic approaches, I interpret the collection in relation to multiple artistic and epistemic systems, from the manuscript workshops of north India to the networks of early Orientalism. I explore the significant role played by these culturally layered art objects in mediating between India and France in the late eighteenth century, highlighting the role played by Mughal cultural legacies during this key phase of European colonial expansionism. Crucially, I emphasize the role played by art and artists in this process, restoring agency to Indian artists who have been rendered all but invisible in the historical record, and highlighting the centrality of images in processes of cultural exchange.