A closer look
Why paint with regular pigments when you can casually flex your imperial wealth by grinding up literal gemstones? Emperor Akbar didn't just casually enjoy art; he turned it into a highly regimented industrial process. In his Tasvir Khana workshop, creating a single manuscript page was a team sport. One guy specialized in drawing faces, another exclusively painted foliage, and a third applied the gold leaf. They worked with brushes sometimes made from a single squirrel hair to produce details so microscopic you practically need a magnifying glass to appreciate their vanity.
