HYDERABAD, INDIA, CIRCA 1750

From the 16th century, artists in India were beginning to be influenced by European artistic modes. This influence provided a new host of subjects, including religious ones, sometimes executed in a manner faithful to their European models and sometimes, as in the present example, with strong allusions to a more characteristically Indian style. The depiction here of the Virgin Mary wearing her distinctive blue mantle, though decorated with fine gold floral motifs and standing within a typically Indian architectural arch is an example of this merging of styles.

Two earlier (ca. 1640-60) and more much more accurately rendered Deccani portrayals of the Virgin Mary are published in Toby Falk and Mildred Archer, Indian Miniatures in the India Office Library, London, 1981, nos. 443 and 444i, pp. 519-20).