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Almost as colourful as the
state’s tradition of festivals is its celebrations of arts, and nowhere is this more
manifest than in the variety and artistry of its varying forms of painting. Even this
takes on two distinctive hues – the formal school of miniature paintings that
flourished in courts all over north
India
and the
Deccan
, and the folk traditions that resulted in a style quite unique to Rajasthan.
In Rajasthan, the
miniature painter did not lack patronage and, in fact, as many as seven styles developed
over a period of time, and in different kingdoms. But to study the development of the
miniature, one must first understand its origins.
The miniature is, at its
most basic, a portfolio painting that uses techniques similar to wall
paintings, cloth paintings or manuscript illustrations from which it may have
evolved. Examples of miniatures in the Mughal and Rajasthani styles exist from the 16th
century on when there was an effloresence of the art.
Just as there is a difference in the romantic Kangra style, so too the Mughal and
Rajasthani styles developed separate inentities that, though less apparent to the
layperson’s eye, nevertheless stand out
clearly as far as the connoisseur of art Is concerned.
While the Mughal style
derived its inspiration from its patrons, and more particularly its emperors, chief
among them Akbar, Jehangier and Shah Jehan, the Rajasthani school of miniatures
was characterised by a revival based on its increasing contact with the Mughal
durbar. However, the Rajasthani miniature was marked through its use of bolder colours,
the ornamental depiction of nature, accentuated human forms, all of them designed to
reflect the altogether more flamboyant Rajput culture.
From the 16th century
through the 18th, the miniature style developed independently in the kingdoms, the
differences being marked in the way the painter looked at the countryside, the hills and
shrubs, the forts and gardens and dunes of the desert. There is enough evidence to show
that miniature style paintings had flourished before the establishment of the 16th
century Mughal studios, particularly as illustrations for manuscripts, and that Akbar
hired many of his court painters from Hindu kingdoms in north
India
.
Eventually it was not
uncommon to find Muslim artists working in the ateliers of Rajput courts, and Hindu
artist seeking similar employment in the Mughal
court. Even the atelier in Chittaurgarh, in the decades that it spent in defiance of the
Mughal badshahi, may have offered employment to the Muslim painter
and had a seminal school in the 16th
century from where a collection of Gita Govinda
paintings may have originated. In the event, the Mewar school
(after the Sisodia rulers of Chittaur and
Udaipur
) went on to become one of the most important in the state.
From the very start,
Rajasthani miniatures were different from the
Mughal – the colours, for example, were stronger, the compositions bolder, the range
of hues almost passionate in their intensity, and in their response to the life of the
people they deemed to reflect in these miniature
glimpses. The Mughal miniature, with few deviations, was restricted to court scenes and
portraits of the emperors and the nobles, but the subject of Rajasthani miniatures could
range over a variety of subjects – the kingly, religious, secular – all different
shades of life.
Naturally, the ecstatic
frolics of
Krishna
and the gopis formed a favourite subject, one of the most endearing being depictions of
Krishna Leela as a body of work. In the Gita
Govinda, also developed as a series, the miniature became a lyrical symbol with swaying
lotuses, meandering streams, and trees in bloom suggesting the intimate passions of
lovers. While epics formed the subject for religious works of art, particularly the
Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the dalliances of
Krishna
were in a more romantic mould. Later, shades of royal lifestyle permeated the canvas of
the painters, and ranged from scenes of hunts to ladies playing chess, or polo.
Today, miniatures are
turned out in almost assembly line in the studios that have been especially developed to
cater to the tourist souvenir trade. Even now, the talent available is formidable, and
while the best of the artists rarely see their way into the open market (they are
commissioned directly, and their work may find its way into collections, or be used to
illustrate prestigious art books). Mostly, the works are copies of earlier paintings,
and original subjects would be hard to find. Studios continue to flourish in Jaipur and
Udaipur
, and more recently in Kishangarh as well.
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