The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

353
2S4. Lady with a Hawk from Guler.
London, Victoria and Albert Museum
Guler shows us for the first time a peculiarly
idealized provocative canon of feminine beauty
that is the ultimate and specifically Pahari
refinement of earlier tradition. Guler painting,
as represented by the painting of The Lady with
.« Hawk [284], is concerned with the ageless
theme of romantic love, in this case meditation
on the absent lover. The flat, geometric areas of
colour proclaim the inheritance from Basohli.
as does the still angular schematic drawing. The
red background is, as usual, a metaphor for
burning passion, and the rigid cypresses are a
further veiled reference to the lady's thoughts.
Typical of Guler and the later Pahari schools is
the cadenced rhythm of line and the slender
trail physique. These qualities and the entranced
preoccupation with the ecstasies of love
are removed at once from Mogul symbolism
and the primitivism of the Rajasthani schools.
The final florescence of Rajput art is to be
seen in the paintings of the Pahari capital of
Kangra. This magnificent development took
place largely under the patronage of Rajah
Samsar Chand, who ruled from 1775 to 1823.
This ruler had a particular sensibility for painting
and was passionately attached to the cult of