A nobleman on a composite horse accompanied by two mythical winged female figures

Title

Year/Period

1780-1800

Region

India, Jaipur

Object Type

water-colours (paintings)

Material

watercolor (paint), paper (fiber product)

Technique

painting (image-making), papermaking

Dimension

Frame size: 40.5 x 47.5 x 3.6 cm,
Object size: 22.5 x 30.5 cm

Accession No.

2015-00222

Collection of

Asian Civilisations Museum

A nobleman and a winged Hindu apsaras (celestial beauty or dancer) are seated on a fabulous composite horse made up of a numerous variety of tightly interlocking and overlapping animals, birds, and fish. The dancing figure that leads the horse is a Muslim peri, or angel, with baroque hair holding a long-necked flask and a gold wine cup. The nobleman wears the distinctive flat Jaipur turban with top knot fashionable during the reign of Maharajah Pratap Singh (1778-1803). The iconography of the peri probably came from Lucknow, which had a considerable influence on Jaipur painting around 1800.