KOTA, RAJASTHAN, INDIA, CIRCA 1760-80

Light brush strokes and bright colours are used to convey the panic and confusion which has overtaken the three figures in this fragment, cowering behind a rock and powerless to stop a rampaging elephant. The trees are painted as through they are translucent, so flimsy are they before the furious animal. The style of the figures in this fragment has much in common with early Kota painting, especially the extensive murals which still decorate the interor of the Kota Garh. Commenting on a Kota painting of two fighting elephants in the Jagdish and Kammla Mittal Museum, Milo Cleveland Beech noted that the style was recognisable for its ‘unchallenged mastery of elephant forms’ (John Seyller (eds.), Rajasthani Paintings in the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, Hyderabad, 2015, p.131, fig.50). Another Kota elephant painting with a bright yellow background is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (acc. no. 1994-148-394).