Description

The drawing depicts Dipaka Raga through an intimate courtly encounter. A prince and his beloved sit closely together upon a low bed, exchangin affectionate gestures within a palace chamber. Bolsters, vessels, and other objects associated with repose and domestic refinement are arranged around them. Above rises an elaborate architectural façade composed of domed pavilions, projecting balconies, cusped openings, and ornamental parapets. The carefully constructed palace setting gives the private meeting an imposing, almost theatrical framework.

The angular profiles, sharply articulated eyes, compact arrangement of the figures, and rhythmic palace architecture are characteristic of late eighteenth-century painting and drawing from Bundi. Although executed principally as a preparatory or independent drawing, the sheet preserves considerable decorative detail, particularly in the domes, architectural borders, textiles, and furnishings. Its subject belongs to the ragamala tradition, in which musical modes were personified through poetic images of love, longing, devotion, and seasonal experience.

Condition

The sheet presents with considerable age-related wear, including creasing, wrinkling, scattered staining and discoloration, small losses and punctures, and areas of surface abrasion. The paper has been reinforced or backed. The drawing nevertheless remains substantially intact and legible, with the principal figures and architectural composition clearly preserved.

Provenance

Private Collection, Hawaii.

Private Collection, New York, acquired from the above in the 2000s.

References

Bautze, Joachim K. Drei “Bundi”-Rāgamālās: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der rajputischen Wandmalerei. Monographien zur indischen Archäologie, Kunst und Philologie, vol. 6. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1987.

Beach, Milo Cleveland. Rajput Painting at Bundi and Kota. Artibus Asiae Supplementum 32. Ascona: Artibus Asiae Publishers, 1974.

Ebeling, Klaus. Ragamala Painting. Basel: Ravi Kumar, 1973.

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