AN ILLUSTRATION TO A RAGAMALA SERIES: VILAVAL RAGINI


LATE MUGHAL, SECOND HALF OF THE 18TH CENTURY Opaque watercolor and gold on paper. Image: 5 1/8 x 3 3/8 in. (12.9 x 8.6 cm); Folio: 11 x 8 in. (27.9 x 20.3 cm)
|As prescribed, the scene takes place at dusk as the princess gazes into a mirror to adjust her earring in preparation for meeting with her lover. She sits on the terrace of a palace, the marble walls of which are embellished with pietra dura flowers. The painting's margins are decorated with scrolling gold and multicolored arabesques. Compare two paintings of the same subject: Marco Polo Gallery, Ragamala, Paris, March 1977, p.23, no.19; and Ebeling, Ragamala Painting, Basel, 1973, p.59, no.C17. Provenance Guerrand Hermès Collection, France