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1720 (ca.), Kota Master (attributed), Maharao Madho Singh Hunting Wild Boar [watercolor] -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)

From the exhibition label: Madho Singh (r. 1631-48), founding ruler of the Kota kingdom, was celebrated nearly a century after his death as the embodiment of the highest Rajput virtues of valor, bravery, and martial skill. Dressed in hunting green, he rides down boars in a high-speed chase through rugged woodland, leaning dangerously from the saddle to thrust his punch dagger (katar) into a fleeing boar while another turns to attack him. This was a dangerous pastime, and it is rendered as high drama. The terrain, including different species of trees and other plants, was rendered in deft brushwork by an artist intimately familiar with the local landscape. The composition itself was modeled after an early seventeenth-century mural in the private quarters of the raja of neighboring Bundi Palace.

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Uploaded on April 27, 2024
Taken on April 26, 2024