South Indian Paintings: A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection

摘要

The paintings produced at the courts of South India during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are for the most part much less well known than those associated with the Mughals and Rajputs. This lack of familiarity in no way reflects on the artistic quality of South Indian paintings, which manifest as much iconographic range and pictorial exuberance as their better known counterparts from North India and Rajasthan. One possible explanation is that collectors have been less attracted to materials from South India, with the consequence that there are fewer scholars who have made a particular study of the subject. There is every reason therefore to welcome the present volume, which showcases the extensive South Indian painting collection in The British Museum.