The tomb was built in the famed Char Bagh style that Itmad-ud-Daulah had himself laid out six years before his death 1622. The monument is beautifully conceived in the white marble with mosaic and lattice. The tomb is not a very large structure as Taj Mahal with a height of only 21 m and a dome-roofed octagonal minaret of 12 m each at each corner.
More than its style of architecture that is sometimes called as flawed by the experts, it is the inlay work or pietra dura on the walls of mausoleum that makes it extremely attractive. Marble screens of geometric latticework permit soft lighting of the inner chamber. On the engraved walls of the chamber is the recurring theme of a wine flask with snakes as handles. In the flanking chamber are many other tombs of other family members.
The main chamber is richly decorated with mosaics and semi-precious stones inlaid in the white marble. According to some historians, the concept and skills of Pietra dura must have been imported from European home of 16th century Florence to India. Though there are some differences like Florentine pietra dura is figurative whereas Indian version is essentially decorative. |
