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Today at the Museum

May 23, 2013

Thinking Globally: Exploring the MIA's Indian and Southeast Asian Art Collection

7 – 8 p.m.
Pillsbury Auditorium

Presenter: Risha Lee, the MIA's Jane Emison Assistant Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art. The MIA's Indian and Southeast Asian art collection contains many gems of art, produced in a variety of times and places. In an introduction to the collecti...

Processional Portrait of Prince Bhawani Sing of Sitamau
Title:Processional Portrait of Prince Bhawani Sing of Sitamau
Artist:Attributed to Pyara Singh
Date:1855
Creation Place:Asia, India
Credit Line:The Katherine Kittredge McMillan Memorial Fund
Accession Number:2010.5
In this vibrant painting, Prince Bhawani Singh (r. 1867-1885) of Sitamau, rides a magnificent charger colorfully festooned and protected by horse armor. The principal figures are each identified by Devangari inscriptions and on the reverse is a six-line git or song of praise for the prince. The monarch and his party are shown setting out on a royal hunting expedition as indicated by the presence of two hounds and weapon bearers.

The type of painting is modeled on earlier Rajasthani, equestrian portraits. Little interest in depicting space or volume is shown, but exquisitely minute detail is evident in the rendering of landscape elements, horses, costumes, and armor. Patterns are often featured in Sitamau paintings and, as the case is here, the silver and gold work is exceptionally refined.

This striking painting demonstrates the extent to which traditional values of Rajput courtly life continued, in spite of British rule, well into the mid-nineteenth century.