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A Royal Lion Hunt

ca. 1640
Not on view
This remarkably animated and vibrant hunt scene is a tour de force of Bundi-style draftsmanship. While Rajput artists drew inspiration from Mughal studies of elephants, they went far beyond these largely static depictions to create one of the most vibrant genres in seventeenth-century Rajput painting: the royal hunt on elephant. This quintessentially Rajput theme celebrates the virtues of valor and skill on the battlefield as expressed through the royal hunt. Such large-scale ink and wash drawings were produced as templates for the murals that decorated the interiors of Rajput palaces. The elephant with a princely rider seen here is directly echoed in a mural preserved in the badal mahal (royal apartments) of Bundi Palace.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: A Royal Lion Hunt
  • Date: ca. 1640
  • Culture: India, Rajasthan, Bundi
  • Medium: Opaque watercolor, ink and charcoal on paper
  • Dimensions: Image: 14 3/4 × 40 7/16 in. (37.5 × 102.7 cm)
    Framed: 21 × 48 3/8 i× 1 1/8 in. (53.3 × 122.9 × 2.9 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Howard Hodgkin Collection, Purchase, Gift of Florence and Herbert Irving, by exchange, 2022
  • Object Number: 2022.209
  • Rights and Reproduction: Image © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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