India's Fabled City: The Art of Courtly Lucknow

This first book to fully explore the opulent art and refined lifestyle of Lucknow showcases cultural diversity at its most magnificent.

Lucknow was a cosmopolitan Indo-Islamic-European capital in northern India that flourished in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Cultural successor to the resplendent Mughal Empire-and fated to succumb to Imperial British expansion - Lucknow fostered some of the most vibrant artistic expressions of its day in a wide range of mediums. It also represented a rare intersection of Eastern and Western traditions, as well as of Islamic and Hindu influences.

This book is the first to present Lucknow's sophisticated synthesis of styles, histories, and beliefs brilliantly melded into its distinctive grand artistry. Captured Hearts includes essays by the two curators and nine additional scholars on the multiple aspects of Lucknow's cultural heritage.

The book also features 240 sumptuous illustrations, including album paintings, illustrated historical and religious manuscripts, textiles and garments, period photographs, and decorative art objects such as ornate metalwork, glassware, and jewelry. Together they offer proof of a rich and dynamic culture, which lives on today by evoking nostalgia for a lost past and serving as a cultural model and source of national pride.

Stephen Markel, Ph.D., is The Harry and Yvonne Lenart Curator and Department Head of South and Southeast Asian Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Tushara Bindu Gude has served as associate curator in the South and Southeast Asian Art department at LACMA since 2006. She received her Ph.D. in art history from UCLA.