Classical Indian paintings from a Distinguished New York Private Collection
An Illustration to the Ramayana: Lakshmana urgently speaks with Rama as Bharata's army approaches, Sub-Imperial Mughal, circa 1600 - 1610
Auction Closed
March 20, 05:22 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Classical Indian paintings from a Distinguished New York Private Collection
Opaque water-based pigments with gold on paper.
The painting damaged and laid down on a sheet of buff paper
Verso: 25 lines of black ink devanagari Sanskrit text (also damaged) describing
the episode and a purple collector's seal with "No. 24" inscribed in pen at top.
Overall sheet size: 11⅜ x 7 in., 28 by 17.5 cm
Collection of Edwin Binney 3rd (1925-1986).
Collection of Dr. William K. Ehrenfeld (1934-2005), San Francisco.
Acquired directly from the Ehrenfeld collection by the current owner, 8th December 1988.
Indian Miniatures from the Ehrenfeld Collection, The American Federation of the Arts, New York
September 1985 - March 1988.
Edwin Binney 3rd, The Mughal and Deccani Schools: Indian Miniature Painting from the Collection of Edwin
Binney 3rd, Portland, 1973, cat. no. 34.
Daniel Ehnbom, Indian Miniatures: The Ehrenfeld Collection, New York, 1985, cat. no. 34.
This beautiful folio is from the so-called "Burnt Ramayana" with the other extant leaves from the series in similar condition - and all laid down in the same fashion with irregular "burnt" edges. This is a case where the miniature's rarity and aesthetics considerably supersede its condition. The present episode is shown in continuous narration in three horizontal registers. At the top, Lakshmana gestures and converses with Rama who is seated partly visible at the upper left corner. In the center Bharata, the brother of Rama and Lakshmana implores king Dasaratha in the forest. And in the lower half section Bharata's warriors, horses and elephants move in a procession.
Other folios from the Burnt Ramayana are in the National Museum, New Delhi (no. 56.93/6), the Lalit Kala Bhavan, Benaras and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (formerly the Prince of Wales Museum), Mumbai. For other examples of the "Burnt Ramayana" see Milo Cleveland Beach, The Imperial Image: Painting for the Mughal Court, , Washington D.C., 1981, fig. 18, Milo Cleveland Beach and Andrew Topsfield, Indian Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Howard Hodgkin, New York, 1991, cat. no. 4.
Terence McInerney, Indian Painting 1585-1825, London, 1982, cat. nos. 6 and 7, Andrew Topsfield (ed.), In the Realm of Gods and Kings: Arts of India, London, 2004, cat. no. 162.
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