Summer Has Arrived! Lot n° 45

Specifications: Watercolor on Paper 9.9 inches X 12.9 inches Rajasthan is instrumental in providing some of the finest paintings. Theyare recognizably different in intent from traditional Mughal attitudes.This vibrant work is packed with descriptive details both of the action andthe ambience. The scene heralds the summer season with its juicy, sumptuousfruits of melons and water melons. A woman gracefully dressed sits with abalance and weights selling the fruit to a couple who take time in choosingand selecting the sweetest. On one side of the woman are deep green watermelons, with a few of them cut to display the luscious red pulp. The otherside has a stack of yellow musk melons.The man wears a rich jama, a turban and fine jewellery. The two women arepainted wearing skirts, cholis and transparent odhinis. They are bothadorned in delicate ornaments. The tree, which provides them shade forms animportant element of the background. Asymmetrical architecture provides apeep into the clear blue sky.This description by Renu Rana. Mughal Painting The Mughal school of painting runs parallel to the Mughal dynasty. It came into prominence in the sixteenth century, during the reign of king Akbar. It reached its zenith under the patronage of Akbar’s grandson – king Jahangir. The reign of the latter’s successor king Shah Jahan saw its decline and finally under the unsympathetic Aurangzeb it breathed its last. Indeed, as a school of art, the duration of Mughal painting was a limited one, extending only over approximately two and a half centuries. Actually, it has often been referred to as not exactly a school, but rather an exceptionally brilliant phase in Indian art. The roots of Mughal painting lay in Samarkand and Herat, where under the patronage of the Timurid kings, Persian art reached its apogee. Babur, a descendant of Timur, and the founder of the Mughal dynasty, speaks of a person named ‘Bihz