Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Fly-infested feast

  • loan
  • Description

    In this strange scene, a prince and his retinue are entertained by Brahmin priests to a communal meal in a fly-infested refectory. Beneath a shelter the head priest, his acolyte and the prince eat off silver trays, while the rest have leaf plates. Everywhere the air is thick with flies, but priests and courtiers eat on regardless. Some satire may be intended on the venality of the priestly class and on the prince’s efforts to court them.

  • Details

    Associated place
    AsiaIndianorth-west IndiaPunjab HillsHimachal Pradesh Chamba (place of creation)
    Date
    1740 - 1750
    Material and technique
    brush drawing with colour on paper
    Dimensions
    frame 51.6 x 68.5 x 1.8 cm (height x width x depth)
    painting 41.2 x 58 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Lent by Howard Hodgkin.
    Accession no.
    LI118.13
  • Further reading

    Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2nd February-22nd April 2012, Visions of Mughal India: The Collection of Howard Hodgkin, Andrew Topsfield, ed. (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2012), no. 69 on p. 162, p. 19, illus. p. 163

Past Exhibition

see (1)

Location

    • Returned to lender

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