Untitled

Unknown

ca. 1640–50 · Opaque watercolor with gold on paper · Asian Art

This panoramic view of a wedding procession through the prosperous bazaar, a masterpiece of descriptive detail and spatial organization, is a folio from a large narrative series illustrating a marriage described in one of the Hindu epics. The unnamed Mandi painter, likely Mughal trained, displays a heightened awareness of Mughal treatments of many components of the picture, such as the striding elephant, the horses in movement, and the clusters of onlookers, who are individualized, as if portraits of known persons. True to Pahari traditions, however, the urban streetscape has multiple points of focus, with rooftops and shop fronts displaying their wares in abundance, all accommodated in a jagged array of projecting structures.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1640–50

Medium

Opaque watercolor with gold on paper

Culture

India, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

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