The Unseen World of Willem Schellinks

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates that Willem Schellinks' interest in and knowledge of Mughal India extended much further than only the enigmatic paintings. It suggests that, partly due to his many European travels, Schellinks had at his disposal hitherto unsuspected information channels about India. It shows that he engaged in other art forms to give expression to his fascination for the India of his day. It is the combination of an aesthetic and iconographical appreciation of Indian painting that makes Schellinks such a rare case in the history of European painting. Schellinks' accurate and detailed references to the Mughal struggle for succession testify to the fact that he must have been well informed about what took place. The Mughal war of succession aroused the imagination of Schellinks' European contemporaries and made them anxious about the deeper significance of these dramatic events for their own political turmoil.