The Taj Mahal is one of the most stunning creative achievements of the Mughal Empire—a monument in marble and semiprecious stones that appears, as poet Rabindranath Tagore wrote, “like a solitary tear suspended on the cheek of time.”

However, the Mughal Emperors also used their massive wealth to further other visual arts, such as portraiture, calligraphy, and nature studies. These links to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art will give you not only a quick background on the emperors, but images of the incredible art they commissioned from artists. Click the top image on each page for a gallery of thumbnails; click each thumbnail to view the image in a larger size. 

Metropolitan Museum of Art galleries:
The Art of the Mughals before 1600
The Art of the Mughals after 1600
The Shah Jahan Album