This painting presents Krishna and Radha
in a Mughal-style palace pavilion enjoying a feast and night fireworks. In
addition to the sparklers in the foreground, the numerous flames along the
roofline and those outlining the five palaces rising out of the lake in the
background suggest that the scene is taking place during the popular Dipwali
Festival of Lights. A song verse inscribed on the back of the painting
describes the feast and the participants, but fails to mention the reason for
the festivities (see Appendix).
The chronology of Kishangarh painting is
controversial, but it is generally considered to have begun by about 1700 with
an emphasis on secular portraits. The production of the atelier flourished
between about 1735 and about 1770, during which time images of Radha and
Krishna were the favorite theme. The leading artist of Kishangarh, Nihal Chand,
is known from inscriptional and archival evidence to have worked from at least
1757 to 1773. His son, Sitaram, continued to paint in his father's dramatically
stylized manner (see Leach, pp. 185-88, no. 71). A less inspired, stereotyped
version of Nihal Chand's style was continued into the early nineteenth century
by the succeeding artists, of the Kishangarh workshop. The shorter figures,
schematic landscape, and awkward treatment of the architecture in this painting
suggest a date of execution during this late phase.
Writer
Name:- Pratapaditya Pal
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