Page 154 - September 20th 2021, Indian and Himalayan Art Christie's NYC

469
AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A RAGAMALA
SERIES: PANCHAMA RAGINI
INDIA, RAJASTHAN, MEWAR,
CIRCA 1680-1700
Folio 10¬ x 8¿ in. (27 x 20.6 cm.)
Image 6¬ x 5√ in. (16.8 x 14.9 cm.)
$4,000-6,000

470
AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A RAGAMALA
SERIES: SOHINI RAGINI
INDIA, NORTHERN DECCAN, 1680-1700
Folio 15¿ x 10º in. (38.4 x 26 cm.)
Image 12 x 7¡ in. (30.5 x 18.7 cm.)
$10,000-15,000

This painting comes from an extensively published
and widely dispersed eighty-six-page ragamala
series. The series is unusual in its style and
iconography, noted for its combination of Deccani
and Rajasthani aesthetics. Previously attributed
to early Mughal ateliers in Aurangabad, the series
could have in fact been painted for one of the
semi-independent Hindu Rajas of the northern
Deccan, the Sanskrit verses implying the work was
produced for a Hindu Maratha.
The present folio represents Sohini Ragini, a
forlorn lover distracted by a parrot. Additional
folios from this Ragamala series are in the Virginia
Museum of Fine Arts (acc. no. 92.6), the Cincinnati
Art Museum (acc. no. 2007.82), the Walters Art
Museum (acc. no. W.905), the San Diego Museum
of Art (acc. no. 1990.465), Museum Rietberg,
the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian
Art, and the Eva and Konrad Seitz collection (see
J. Seyller Mughal and Deccani Paintings, Zurich,
2010, pp. 118-123, cats. 38-40).

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