Cleveland Museum of Art

Maharaja of Kotah Listening to Music and Watching Dancers

Date

c. 1820

Medium

Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper

Culture

India, Kotah school, early 19th Century

Department

Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

In the foreground the king enjoys food, wine, and a dance performance with his companions on the terrace of a palace residence. His hunting lodge is on the opposite bank of the river. Deer, wild boar, and the coveted tiger roam the forested wilderness. Rulers of the princely state of Kota adopted many architectural and costume elements from their overlords, the Mughal emperors. The mix of white marble and pink sandstone with rooftop pavilions and niches in the walls are typical of domestic architecture under the Mughals of India. By the early 1800s, Indian artists adopted an interest in conveying a sense of receding space from European paintings. This painter has convincingly rendered the space of the room behind the king, featuring a door to an inner bedchamber.

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