Untitled

Kota Master A

ca. 1720 · Opaque watercolor on paper · Asian Art

Madho Singh (r. 1631–48), founding ruler of the Kota kingdom, was celebrated nearly a century after his death as the embodiment of the highest Rajput virtues of valor, bravery, and martial skill. Dressed in hunting green, he rides down boars in a high-speed chase through rugged woodland, leaning dangerously from the saddle to thrust his punch dagger (katar) into a fleeing boar while another turns to attack him. This was a dangerous pastime, and it is rendered as high drama. The terrain, including different species of trees and other plants, was rendered in deft brushwork by an artist intimately familiar with the local landscape. The composition itself was modeled after an early seventeenth-century mural in the private quarters of the raja of neighboring Bundi Palace.

Artist

Kota Master A

Date

ca. 1720

Medium

Opaque watercolor on paper

Culture

India, Kota, Rajasthan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

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