INDIA, RAJASTHAN, MEWAR, CIRCA 1760

Upon first glance, it seems this painting depicts a fanciful interaction between foreigners as seen through the eyes of Indian artists. However, the depiction of three-dimensional space, indicated by the foreshortened limbs, is unfamiliar whereas other elements, such as the cavorting animals on the carpet, are in keeping with the typical Indian depiction of flattened space. A copy is in the collection of Dr. Alvin O. Bellak at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (see D. Mason, Intimate Worlds, 2001), and in his essay, John Seyller correctly surmises there must be European sources for this strange composition. Below are depicted three variants after a 16th century Flemish painting (whereabouts unknown) that depicts a rebus of the Dutch proverb "de wereld voedt veel zotten (the world feeds many fools)." In the Dutch source, there is a row of objects at top that symbolize the first part of the proverb; the orb for "world," the foot for "feeds," the fiddle for "many," and the zalta, or two men, for "fools." As popular as this imagery seems to have been, given just these three images of many variants known, certainly these prints made their way to India where the men were isolated and incorporated into Mewar painting and drawings; for variations on the theme, see the following lots 222-224. For further discussion, see S. Gudlaugsson, "Het nederlandsce voorbeeld vor een indische miniatuur uit den Mogoltijd'" in Kunsthistorische mededeelingen van het Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, Vol. I, 1946, pp. 2-3.