Prof Yael Rice – The Brush of Insight (Book Launch)

This week we were delighted to join with the Indian Art Circle at SOAS in hosting the book launch of Professor Yael Rice’s The Brush of Insight.

In the illustrated lecture, Yael Rice discussed her very recently published book, The Brush of Insight: Artists and Agency at the Mughal Court (University of Washington Press, 2023), a study of Mughal court painters’ evolution from illustrators of manuscripts and albums to active mediators of imperial visionary experience. In the talk, Rice demonstrated how royal artists created a new visual economy that featured highly naturalistic royal portraits and depictions of the emperors’ dreams, and how these images, in turn, shaped the perception of the Mughal emperors’ preeminence in all domains—temporal and spiritual—from the reign of Akbar to that of his son and successor, Jahangir.

The talk is now available to watch in full on the Society’s YouTube channel:

The book can be ordered online at combinedacademic.co.uk

Use the code FFS23 for a 30% discount.