Page from a Ragamala Series: Malkos Raga (Primary Title)
Unidentified (Artist)
In nearly every ragamala series, the autumn family of Bhairava is followed by that of Malkos, associated with winter. Accordingly, both these paintings of Malkos Raga are inscribed (one on the back) with the number seven, for they would have immediately followed the Bhairava cycle’s six paintings. While their iconography is essentially identical—the patriarch appearing in a palace setting along with his wife and among female attendants—their styles are quite different.
The work on the left’s vibrant primary color palette and extremely flattened, notional depictions of space and architecture recall older modes of Indian painting that, generally speaking, held sway relatively late at Central Indian courts like that of Datia. By contrast, painting at the Rajasthani court of Amber was significantly influenced by the relatively naturalistic style of Mughal artists, helping to explain the painting on the right’s comparatively believable spatial structure, softer palette, more precise delineation, and delicate decorative features.
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