A pair of Mughal pietra dura marble panels, North India, Agra region, circa 1630-40

M. Fraser, Selected Works from the Stuart Cary Welch Collection of Indian and Islamic Art, London, 2015, cat.22, pp.82-83

Pietra dura is the technique of inlaying cut and fitted pieces of coloured hard stones into marble or other stone panels. Although there existed an ancient, indigenous tradition of stone carving and stone inlay in India, it has been suggested that the pietra dura technique was introduced to the Mughal court by Italian craftsmen in the first half of the 17^th century. This was through European and Italian lapidaries who are known to have been working in Mughal workshops as well as with the import of European works of art decorated in the pietra dura technique. For further discussion, see Koch 1988, p.39, note 24. Known under the Mughals as ‘parchin kari’, the technique was adopted by Mughal craftsmen to create intricate geometric and naturalistic designs with flora and fauna. Coloured stones set into white marble surfaces imbued jewel-like qualities to these inlaid architectural panels.

Although it is not known which Mughal building the present lot would have originally been part of, there are several monuments in and around Agra which were built during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (r.1628-58) and are decorated with inlaid marble panels. The profusely decorated tomb of Itimad al-Daula in Agra, built between 1622 and 1628, represents a transitional phase in Mughal architectural decoration as it has both, the earlier style of soft stone inlay in marble as well as hard stone inlay. Pietra dura decoration on marble is also seen on some of the buildings in the Agra Fort built during Shah Jahan’s time such as the Mussaman Burj, built between 1628 and 1637, and on the iconic Taj Mahal which was built between 1632 and 1653. After Shah Jahan’s reign, pietra dura decoration was rarely used in Indian buildings (ibid., p.39).

For other comparable Mughal pietra dura marble panels sold in these Rooms, see 1 May 2019, lot 163; 24 October 2018, lot 153; 20 April 2016, lot 147, and 6 April 2011, lot 101, the latter also formerly in the collection of Stuart Cary Welch.