In this idealized portrait of Krishna’s beloved, Radha, her features reflect metaphors of beauty found in Sanskrit literature: eye like a lotus flower, eyebrow like a bow, chin like a mango stone and sharp nose like a parrot’s beak. This stylization stands in sharp contrast to the Mughal-influenced style, which had flourished in the small kingdom of Kishangarh two decades earlier, and demonstrates the radical aesthetic departures of the court painter Nihal Chand, who developed a distinctive “Rajput” style for his patron.
Ink and opaque watercolor on paper
