'Bahadur Shah Zafar writes poetry in six different languages and through the sheer brilliance of his example, he provokes this last great renaissance in Delhi.' – William Darymple

In the fourth episode of the Frieze Masters Podcast 2025, writer and broadcaster William Dalrymple discusses the art, poetry and politics of the last Mughals with curator Arturo Galansino. Together, they uncover the lesser-known histories of one of the defining chapters in the history of the Indian subcontinent – challenging colonial narratives and exploring what survives of the Mughals' legacy today.

The Frieze Masters Talks programme and the Frieze Masters Podcast are brought to you by Frieze in collaboration with dunhill.

About the speakers

William Dalrymple is a historian, broadcaster and writer. He is joined by Arturo Galansino, art historian, curator, director general of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence and this year's curator of the Frieze Masters Talks programme.

About the Frieze Masters Podcast

The Frieze Masters Podcast is back for 2025, bringing you seven conversations across art history curated by Arturo Galansino (Director General of Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence).

Entitled 'Woven Histories' and recorded live at Frieze Masters 2025, this year's series features artists, curators and thinkers, whose conversations weave together geographies and chronologies, and challenge us to look at history in new and unexpected ways.

Topics range from the evolving relationship between fashion and art to the role of the archive in Black history, the last Mughals and their cultural influence in India and the enduring inspiration of the old masters and renaissance art on contemporary making. Speakers include artists Tracey Emin, Glenn Brown and Antony Gormley, museum directors and curators Nicholas Cullinan, Émilie Hammen, Elizabeth Way and Carl Strehlke, and writers Edward George, Matthew Harle, Christopher Rothko and William Dalrymple.

Listen now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

The Frieze Masters Talks programme and the Frieze Masters Podcast are brought to you by Frieze in collaboration with dunhill.

Image credit: Ghulam Murtaza Khan, Akbar II in darbar with the British Resident Charles Metcalfe, ca. 1811-15. Cincinnati Art Museum, The William T. and Louise Taft Semple Collection, 1962.458