But the era of the, European renaissance exhibits in the north-west of India a still more remarkable spectacle. There rose in the city of Agra a building of white marble, which, viewed at sunrise or sunset, in the heat of the day .or by chill moonlight, conveys to the eye impressions of grace aud beauty such as DO photographic skill can seize, no painter or architect delineate. Forgetting that the dome is as false as it is useless, that a so-called symmetry is obtained at the expense of propiiety and sense, and that a species of mosaic which should serve to decorate a lady's boudoir is unfitted for the exterior of a colossal mausoleum,—the Taj Mahal remains the most magnificent architectural effect to be found in the whole world. The men of the 17th century who created it were artists in the highest sense of the word, but they were content to please the eye, while their predecessors of the 14th aimed at satisfyino. the mind also.
A raised' platform, 313 feet square and 18 feet high, faced with white marble, has at each corner a minaret 133 feet in height In the centre stands the mausoleum, a square of 186 feet, with 33 feet 9 inches of its corners cut off. The centre of this is occupied by the principal dome, 58 feet in diameter and 80 feet in height, under which is an enclosure formed by.a screen of trellis work of white marble. Within this, in its centre, is the over tomb of Mumtaz Mahal, and on one side that of Shah Jahan, the tombs being in vaults immediately below. In every angle of the building is a small domical apartment, two storeys in height, 26 feet 8 inches in diameter. All the spandrels, all the angles and more import ant architectural details, of pure white marble, and the tombs and screens are inlaid with agates, jaspers, bloodstones, combined iu wreaths, scrolls, and frets, exquisite in design and beautiful iu colour.
Aurangzeb ordered a structure over his daughter Rabia at Aurangabad, and in the beginning of the 19th century an imitation was erected at Lucknow. The black-ground mosaics at Dehli are similar to the Florentine mosaics, and are thought to have been introduced by Austin of Bordeaux, a jeweller who was much employed by Shah Jahan. The mosaics on a white ground are to be seen in the buildings of Lahore, Dehli, Agra ; the Taj Mahal and the palace of Shah &than, at Agra, contain the most numerous and finest examples. They resemble the white ground mosaics of Europe, as seen in trays, tables, and fancy-work.
Austin or Augustin do Bordeaux executed a mosaic of Orpheus or Apollo playing to the beasts, after Raphael's picture, which was in the throne room there. It was brought to London to the India museum.
The Indians owe their knowledge of the yietro duo art of inlaying in precious stones to II toren tine artists. Up to the erection of Akbar's tomb at Sikandra, in the first tett years of Jahangir's reign A.D. 1605-1615, there are numerous mosaics of coloured marble, but no sample of inlay. In the tomb of Itimad-rtd-Dowlalt A.D. 1615 to 1628, both systems are in perfection. In the Taj and the palaces at Agra and Dehli, built by Shah &than, A.D. 1628-1668, the mosaic has disappeared, being entirely supplanted by the inlay.—Fergusson,.pp. 33, 362, 388, 405, 588, 596 ; Cunningham, v. rut; Burgess Mor. and Mat., 1868-89.