History of Art and Architecture

This article highlights the importance of a prominent festival, the Saptasvarupa Annakutotsava celebrated in Nathdwara in 1822, through an iconographic analysis of a miniature painting dated to 1822–1850 in the LACMA collection. First, the essay delimits the area of investigation by briefly introducing the sect of Puṣṭi Mārg, its icons or svarūps, and the installation of its most important deity, Śrī Nāthjī, at Nathdwara in 1672. Secondly, it analyzes the festival of 1822 as depicted in the painting. The final part of the study underlines the significance of the celebrations in the history of the sect by contextualizing the event with information drawn from secondary literature: it introduces some well-documented issues, such as the absence of the svarūp of Bālkṛṣṇajī in the celebrations; it mentions some of the problems that Dauji, the head priest of the temple, had to overcome in the coordination of the festival, such as settling the disputes among the gosvāmīs of the sect; and it concludes with a comparative analysis of the Saptasvarupa Annakutotsava with two similar festivals held in Nathdwara in 1739–1740 and 1966 to emphasize the preeminence of the event of 1822 in the history of Puṣṭi Mārg.

This article analyses a selection of portraits that decorate the apartments of the Garh Mahal, a royal palace located in the city centre of Jhalawar in southern Rajasthan. The paintings were executed in two distinct periods: the first set dates from the time of Maharaj Rana Prithvi Singh (r. 1845–75) and can be dated to the mid-1860s; the second one was commissioned by Maharaj Rana Bhawani Singh (r. 1899–1929) between 1918 and 1921. The purpose of this investigation is to highlight the evolution and the peculiar ways in which the rulers of Jhalawar, who belong to the Jhala Rajput clan, visually manifested their legitimation to power and reinforced their political relevance after attaining independence from Kota in 1838. Their ideologies and aspirations are revealed by precise stylistic strategies and carefully assembled dynastic groups of portraits. In the dynastic groups, Jhala rulers are juxtaposed with other Rajput monarchs and Pushti Marg religious figures to emphasize royal and devotional connections. The first group of portraits focuses on anachronistic royal affiliations executed in ‘Rajasthani’ style, a visual idiom not attributable to a specific school of painting and suggesting, therefore, a Rajput social and political cohesion. The second group highlights Bhawani Singh’s relationship with his contemporaneous royal peers and Nathdwara religious figures. This set of portraits was executed by a team of painters supervised by the famous Ghasiram Hardev Sharma of Nathdwara (1869–1931). The murals display a variety of visual idioms, including the traditional Nathdwara miniature painting style, ‘photographic aesthetic’, and Victorian academic realism.

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CBC Conference, University of Tübingen, 9-11 April 2018.

Chair: Isabella Nardi.

Speakers: Daniela de Simone; Anna Dallapiccola; Laura E. Parodi; Isabella Nardi; Anna Ślączka. Description: In Jack Goody’s monograph Renaissances: The One or The Many? (CUP 2010), the author argues that even though we associate the word Renaissance with a particular historic period and cultural movement of Italy, this is a phenomenon that recurs in all literate societies including those outside of Europe. Such critical moment is defined by a number of common elements, such as economic prosperity and greater freedom, and it is characterized by periods of ‘looking back’ at classical knowledge, by ‘looking around’ at other cultures, and by ‘bursts forward’ or ‘golden ages’. These prosperous times are distinguished by a considerable flowering of culture in all its aspects. Expanding on Goody’s definition of ‘many renaissances’ and ‘golden ages’, this panel proposes to explore the possibilities, and pitfalls, of applying this terminology to South Asian art history.

Short paper abstract This paper explores vernacular uses and responses to photography in India through an analysis of a selection of artefacts produced at Nathdwara for Pushti Marg devotees. These works will challenge established notions of Indian photography which have been shaped by the study of the colonial archive.

We are organizing a panel for ICAS, Leiden, 16-19 July 2019.
If you wish to participate with a paper, please send an abstract of max. 250 words and a brief CV (max. 1 page) including your affiliation and contact details by 26 September 2018 to Regina Höfer, regina.hoefer@uni-bonn.de and Isabella Nardi, isabella.nardi@yahoo.it.

CfP: The 11th International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS), Leiden 16-19 July 2019
Panel: Modernity and Modernism in South Asian Art (c. 1880-1947)
Chairs: Regina Hoefer and Isabella Nardi
Deadline for sending your abstract: 26 September 2018