ARTS OF INDIA

These paintings belong to a European connoisseur who passionately gathered these works through long decades of collecting between the 1980s and the early
1990s. They illustrate the variety of painting traditions in North India, with examples from most iconic Rajasthani schools. These paintings show courtly pleasures
such as the hunt, royal worship of local gods as well as secular illustrations of musical modes, royal portraits and album pages, dating from the early 17th to the
19th century. Christie’s is delighted to ofer this selection of paintings in the Arts of India sale on the 26th of May 2016. The collection will also be ofered in a
dedicated Online Only sale: IMAGES OF RAJASTHAN: A PRIVATE COLLECTION OF INDIAN PAINTINGS (17 May - 27 May 2016). The second instalment of this
Online Only sale will be ofered in October 2016.
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AN ILLUSTRATION TO A RAGAMALA SERIES:
GANDARANI RAGINI
SUB-IMPERIAL MUGHAL SCHOOL, NORTH INDIA,
CIRCA 1610
The second ragini of Malkos, opaque pigments heightened
with gold, she sits on a raised platform, a foral carpet on
the ground, she leans against an orange bolster, her maidservant
standing behind her, a walled courtyard at either
side topped with pavilions, within black rules, three lines
of fne devanagari text at top, numbered in the lower right
corner
8√ x 11æin. (22.5 x 28.9cm.)
£2,500-3,500 $3,600-5,000
€3,200-4,400
PROVENANCE:
Acquired before 1991.
Our panting belongs to a Ragamala series discussed in
length by L.V. Habighorst in Moghul Ragamala, gemalte
Indische Tonfolgen und Dichtung des Kshemakarna,
Koblenz, 2006. The present folio is illustrated there as
cat.17, p. 38. For two other folios of the same series in
the Moscatelli Collection, namely Gauda Ragaputra of
Shri Raga and Shankara Ragaputra of Megha Raga, see
C. Glynn, R. Skelton and A. L. Dallapicolla, Ragamala,
Paintings from India from the Claudio Moscatelli Collection,
exhibition catalogue, London, 2011, cat. 14 and 15.
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AN ILLUSTRATION TO A RAGAMALA SERIES:
DHANASRI RAGINI
SUB-IMPERIAL MUGHAL SCHOOL, RAJASTHAN,
NORTH INDIA, CIRCA 1690
Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, she sits
pensively under a tree on a rectangular carpet, her hand
to her chin, parrots and a squirrel on a banana tree before
her, fowering shrubs and trees in a sparse hilly landscape
around, the sun shines, within gold, blue and red rules, four
lines of devanagari text in red and black above, identifcation
inscription on reverse
10º x 8¬in. (26 x 22cm.)
£3,000-5,000 $4,300-7,100
€3,800-6,200
PROVENANCE:
Acquired before 1991.
A translation of the text on reverse is ofered by Ordhendra
Coomar Gangoly: Seated under the Vakula tree, the
lady was red [with grief]. She is weeping and heaving
deep sighs. Her cloth and her bodice are coloured red. It
is dificult to fnd a lady of such slim grace. She has no
companion with her. By the heat of separation her body
withers.“ The verses are ascribed to the poet Paida.
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