Lot 77
AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A RAGAMALA SERIES: BAIRADI RAGINI
INDIA, RAJASTHAN, MEWAR, CIRCA 1635-45
£4,032
Auction: 11 December 2024 from 10:00 GMT
Description
gouache heightened in gold on paper, red border with rules in black ink, depicting a night scene with a couple caressing against bolsters under a canopy in a pavilion, a white bed by their side, a female attendant offering them wine on the right, palm tree landscape in the background, vases and floral sprays in the foreground
Dimensions
26.1cm x 19.3cm
Provenance
Formerly, the collection of Nasli Heeramaneck (1902-1971).
Heeramaneck was a Parsi-American art dealer who specialised in Pre-Columbian and Asian art. Born in Bombay, he moved to New York in the 1920s and remained there until his death in 1971. He and his wife had a substantial collection art, of which the majority is held in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and The National Museum of Delhi.
Footnote
This painting is in the style of Sahibdin and Manohar. Both artists used strong , vibrant colours typical of Rajasthani painting in their palettes, illustrating not only ragamala series but other Hindu texts too.
Sahibdin, a Muslim, was a major artist at the court of Mewar in the seventeenth during the reign of Maharana Jagat Singh (r.1628-1661) along with the slightly later artist Manohar.
For comparison and further discussion on Sahibdin and Mewar painting see:
E. Binney, Rajput Miniatures from the collection of Edwin Binney 3rd., Portland, 1968, no.5.
A. Topsfield, Court Painting at Udaipur, Zurich,2001, pp. 7,9-10,16,32-33,35,55-78,86-87,89-96,100-101,109-10,143-44,158.277.
C. Glynn, R. Skelton and A.L. Dallapiccola, Ragamala Paintings from the Claudio Moscatelli Collection, London, 2011.
