Academics
Indian miniatures: Court and courtship is a study of Indian paintings in which the author J.Br. Losty explores the well-trod highways and the lesser-known byways of miniature paintings put together by the well-known textile collectors, praful and Shilpa Shah. Starting with a splendid 16th-century painting from the early Rajput Bhagavata Purana, readers will savour the variety of Mughal and other portraits of emperors, princes, courtiers, and of royal elephants and horses. Courtly pictures include several from the Deccan, Rajasthan, central India, and the Northern hills. Resplendent ladies in 18th and 19th-century attire adorn the pages, as do paintings acquired for the textiles and costumes they illustrate ? James, paijamas, angarkhas, turban, odhnis, patkas, canopies, and qanats. Representing the classic texts of Sanskrit and Hindi literature are stunning examples from a half-century ragamala, the Shanghai Ramayana, the Gita Govinda, Harijans, and rasikapriya. Two of the most impressive paintings ever to come out of Nathdwara are featured here, from the hands of Master artists Sukhdev Gaur and ghasiram Sharma.
J.P. Losty was the curator of Indian manuscripts and paintings at the British Museum and British Library in London for 34 years until his retirement in 2005. He has published extensively on illustrated Indian manuscripts and painting in India from the 11th to the 19th century. Some of his most important books include the groundbreaking The Art of the Book in India (1982), Calcutta: City of Palaces (1990), The Ramayana: Love and Valour in India?s Great Epic (2008), and Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire (with Malini Roy, 2012). More recent publications include catalogues of two important Indian collections of Company paintings, in the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum in Hyderabad (2016) and in the TAPI Collection (2019).
J.P. LostyAdd a review
Login to write a review.
Customer questions & answers