The Complete Taj Mahal
and the Riverfront Gardens of Agra
Ebba Koch
with drawings by Richard A. Barraud
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40% discount – normally £39.95
now only £23.97
‘Fittingly sumptuous …
the culmination of the author’s life work’ | | – The World of Interiors |
| ‘Ebba Koch has captured this building in a way that makes you look at it with fresh eyes’ | | – Outdoor Photography |
| ‘Looking at the book is the next best thing to going to the place’ | | – Architectural Review |
| ‘Marks a major advance in our understanding of one of the world’s greatest monuments … a serious, academic work that does not neglect the importance of good illustrations’ | | – Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies |
The Taj Mahal is the masterpiece of Mughal art and one of the most famous buildings in the world. Yet until now, there has been no full analysis of its architecture and meaning. The lost world of the Agra gardens and the greatest monument to love ever built, are recreated here through superb scholarship and evocative illustrations.
Ebba Koch has been working on the palaces and gardens of Shah Jahan for thirty years, and on the Taj Mahal itself – the tomb of the emperor’s wife, Mumtaz Mahal – for a decade. Here, in hundreds of new photographs and drawings, she provides the first detailed documentation ever published on every building in the vast complex.
She leads the reader on a walk that illuminates not only the white marble mausoleum but the mosque and guesthouse that flank it, through the entire complex of the Taj Mahal, with an explanation of each building, revealing not only the mausoleum but the mosque and guest house that flank it, the garden, the great gate, the forecourt, the quarters of the tomb attendants and the now almost completely lost bazaar and caravanserai complex.
She gives special attention to the floral ornamentation – both the famous pietre dure inlay in white marble and the rich relief carving in marble and red sandstone. Reconstructions allow us to see the monument in the context of Shah Jahan’s Agra, and the author explains its design and construction, its symbolic meaning and its history up to the present day.
Ebba Koch is Professor of Art History at the University of Vienna, and has been the architectural advisor to the Taj Mahal Conservation Collaborative since 2001. Among her previous books are King of the World, Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology and Mughal Architecture, which has become the standard work on the subject.
Also of interest:
The Royal Palaces of India
Islamic Art and Architecture World of Art series
The Majesty of Mughal Decoration: The Art and Architecture of Islamic India
The Mughal Emperors
Architecture of the Islamic World
Islamic Geometric Patterns with free CD-ROM |
|  |  | | | | ISBN 0500342091 | | ISBN-13 978-0500342091 | | | | 28.5 x 22.8 cm | | Hardback | | 288pp | | 378 illustrations, 224 in colour | | First published 2006 | | | | £39.95 | | | |  | | | | 
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