Untitled

Unknown

ca. 1640 · Opaque watercolor on paper · Asian Art

This remarkably animated and vibrant hunt scene is a tour de force of Bundi-style draftsmanship. While Rajput artists drew inspiration from Mughal studies of elephants, they went far beyond these largely static depictions to create one of the most vibrant genres in seventeenth-century Rajput painting: the royal hunt on elephant. This quintessentially Rajput theme celebrates the virtues of valor and skill on the battlefield as expressed through the royal hunt. Such large-scale ink and wash drawings were produced as templates for the murals that decorated the interiors of Rajput palaces. The elephant with a princely rider seen here is directly echoed in a mural preserved in the badal mahal (royal apartments) of Bundi Palace.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1640

Medium

Opaque watercolor on paper

Culture

India, Bundi, Rajasthan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Howard Hodgkin Collection, Purchase, Gift of Florence and Herbert Irving, by exchange, 2022