Maharana Jagat Singh Hawks for Cranes
This spectacular panoramic vista of the Mewar landscape depicts a royal hunting party in a series of consecutive vignettes, creating a continuous narrative. The aerial perspective, reflecting the plunging views of terrain offered from many Rajput forts, was an innovation of the Mewar school, perhaps combined here with a new awareness of European cartography. The rays of golden sun—the insignia that Rajput princes displayed on their standards—add a surreal if somewhat celestial dimension to the composition. This painting is remarkable for its complex topography, differentiated with imaginatively devised pictorial devices—hillocks, streams, fields—each deployed to create a landscape of the imagination. The large scale of the work is typical of mid-eighteenth-century Mewar painting, as is the likelihood that multiple artists worked on it in a palace studio environment.
Artwork Details
- Title: Maharana Jagat Singh Hawks for Cranes
- Artist: Shiva and Dayal
- Date: dated 1744
- Culture: Western India, Rajasthan, Udaipur
- Medium: Opaque watercolor, ink and gold on paper
- Dimensions: Sheet: 26 7/8 x 29 3/4 in. (68.3 x 75.6 cm)
Image: 23 7/8 x 25 7/8 in. (60.6 x 65.7 cm)
Framed: 34 5/8 × 36 1/2 × 1 1/2 in. (87.9 × 92.7 × 3.8 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Fletcher Fund, 1996
- Object Number: 1996.100.3
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
More Artwork
Research Resources
The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.