Miniature Painting

Mughal-School Miniature Painting

Mughal-school atelier · Mughal tradition · Opaque watercolour & gold on paper

6 weeks

In the studio

Mughal-School Miniature Painting — before treatment

Mughal-School Miniature Painting — after treatment

AfterBefore

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The Story

Miniature paintings concentrate enormous detail into a small, fragile sheet, and this courtly garden scene had been put at risk by its own framing: paper tape and cellotape applied at the corners had stained the paper and grown brittle, while the mount board beneath had turned acidic and yellow.

There were losses, too — tears and missing paper at the lower-left, and flaking in the paint layer, with the orange pigment of one figure's jacket especially diminished. Surface fungus had taken hold and needed addressing before anything else.

The painting was lifted from its harmful mount, its tapes and hinges removed, and its fungus cleared with a measured ethanol-and-thymol solution. Flaking paint was consolidated, the sheet gently flattened with minimal moisture, and the work re-hinged onto an acid-free mount — stable, clean, and safe for the future.

The Damage: A finely illuminated courtly assembly, mounted with paper tape and cellotape that had stained all four corners a yellow-brown. Tears and paper loss at the lower-left, scattered losses to the paint layer — the orange jacket of one figure badly affected — and an acidic, yellowing mount board actively endangering the sheet.
The Process: Detachment from the acidic mount; removal of tape, hinges, and cellotape; mending of the lower edge; solvent cleaning with ethanol and thymol to lift surface fungus; consolidation of flaking paint; minimal-moisture flattening; and re-hinging onto an acid-free mount with Japanese-tissue and starch-paste hinges.
The Outcome: Freed from its acidic mount and surface grime, the miniature's jewel-like palette and gold illumination read with full clarity again — and it is now housed in archival materials that will not harm it.