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World|art & entertainment|August 8, 2016 / 05:00 PM
The Royal Canvas

AKIPRESS.COM - talk-759Unlike most master artists practising in the hills of Jammu (India) in the 18th century, the works by “The Master of the Swirling Skies” did not emphasise on bright colours or patterned textiles. They were far more restrained, with wire-thin outlines and trees with unusual leaf patterns. For years, this artist was one among the several masters of the era, grouped together. But now his work is being distinguished from the rest.

On display, currently, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) in New York, arguably, is one of his finest works — Krishna and the Gopas Huddle in the Rain. There is Krishna with Radha and a group of cowherds, shielded under an umbrella. While cows are seen grazing in the foreground, there are also lotus flowers and buds in varying stages of bloom on the opaque watercolour on paper. Bought by Steven Kossak, when he was curator at The Met’s Department of Asian Art, the work has now been donated to the museum along with several other works of Indian-origin, nearly 100 of which feature in the exhibition “Divine Pleasures: Painting from India’s Rajput Courts”. “These distinguished paintings constitute one of the premier collections of this material in private hands,” says Thomas P Campbell, Director and CEO of The Met.

Categorised into three major sections — “Early Rajput and Rajasthan”, “early Pahari” (Punjab Hills), and “later Pahari” — the display projects the distinct stylistic expressions under the patronage of Rajput rulers in different principalities and periods. “The Rajput style of the early 16th century in Rajasthan was transformed by contact with the Mughal school, which was developing concurrently. While early Rajput paintings favoured a limited colour range, shallow space, and a dynamic, action-filled narrative style, the Mughal school developed extremely refined brushwork, fine detail, blended colours and a different repertoire of subjects. Together these traditions met and evolved with mutual artistic exchanges giving rise to further wonderful styles,” says curator Navina Haidar.

The Mughal miniatures might be considered more celebrated, but the broad stylistic elements in each region had their own strong characteristics. The Rajput school, for instance, were defined by opaque watercolours and ink on paper, heightened with gold and silver. Created mainly between the 16th and the early 19th century for the royal courts of Rajasthan and the Punjab Hills, the works were acquired by Kossak from the ’70s onwards. The display includes a variety of mythological works including Krishna Swallows the Forest Fire (1690–1730), attributed to the “Master” at the Court of Mankot, depicting an episode from the Bhagavata Purana; and Blindman’s Buff: The Demon Pralambha Carries Balarama on His Shoulder, an illustrated folio from the dispersed “Isarda” Bhagavata Purana (1560–65).

Source: indianexpress.com

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