This paper examines the visual tradition of the court of Udaipur, in Rajasthan (India) during the reign of Maharana Amar Singh II, who ruled over the region of Mewar from 1698 to 1710 AD. This was a period of transition and experimentation from iconographic as well as stylistic perspectives. In tracing the development of Mewari painting during this period, the article analyses the different influences that shaped the emergence of this court tradition while drawing comparisons with Mughal painting. The development of painting in the court of Amar Singh II is examined through historical, stylistic, and thematic lenses. The article first briefly introduces earlier examples of portraiture; it then focuses on some of the paintings in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, identifying the evolution of certain key stylistic and thematic characteristics. While comparisons with the Mughal examples highlight the source of the changes in Mewari painting, the paper also emphasises the syncretistic nature of Mewari painting and the experimentation that led to the emergence of a unique approach to court painting under the reign of Maharana Amar Singh II.
The purpose of this study is to provide new insights into our understanding of Indian traditional concepts of painting and into the painter from the point of view of Sanskrit technical treatises. A number of śilpa śāstras explain the concept of painting by highlighting the divine origin of this art, which is defined in the narrative of two myths and in the establishment of traditional authorities such as Lord Viśvakarman and Nagnajit. Closely linked to the divine origin of this art is that of the auspiciousness attached to painting: the texts in this analysis explain the auspicious and inauspicious characteristics of painting, stressing the importance of concepts such as measurement, proportion, beauty and colors. This study will finally examine the painter himself who is considered by the śilpa śāstras as someone capable of grasping and using all these notions together in a skillful way. This article also seeks to highlight some critical discrepancies between the painter as described in the śilpa śāstras and the painter as described in secondary literature, in which he is sometimes identified with a yogī.