ARTICLE
Rajasthani Manuscript Painting
In the seventeenth century, the style of the Bikaner school continued to parallel the Mughal artistic style of the time. However, by the second half of the century, the Mughal workshops suffered a decline and its local painting tradition re-emerged and gained prominence, as evidenced by a Rasikapriya series and Bhagavata Purana dating to this time. During the same period, manuscript painting was also flourishing in the workshops or chitrashalas of Bundi and Kota. The former is notable for its use of elements from both the Mughal and the Deccani schools. The latter, after its separation from Bundi, established its own painting tradition, which included detailed depictions of landscapes and hunting scenes in addition to devotional works.
The apogee of the Kishangarh school, meanwhile, came in the first half of the eighteenth century, characterised by devotional paintings of Radha and Krishna. These paintings, primarily executed by the master artist Nihal Chand, were based on the Bhagavata Purana, the Gita Govinda and the poems of Savant Singh, the then ruler of Kishangarh. In the court of Amber at Jaipur as well, court painting gained prominence in the eighteenth century, with several manuscripts produced under the royal patronage of its ruler Savai Pratap Singh, including a Ragamala series and a Rasikapriya series.
Like many manuscript painting traditions in the subcontinent, the administrative and economic policies of the British Crown in the nineteenth century led to a decline in patronage as the wealth of most smaller courts was reduced. Coupled with the arrival of photography, which attracted the interest of royal patrons, and new forms of employment for artists, such as Company Painting, Rajasthani and other miniature painting traditions faded away by the late nineteenth century.
Bibliography
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Goetz, Herman. “General Surveys of Schools of Rajasthani Painting: Marwar (with some paintings from Jodhpur in the collection of Kumar Sangram Singh).” Marg 11, no. 2 (March 1958): 42-49.
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