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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Elephants pushing cannons drawn by bullocks

  • loan
  • Description

    This powerful fragmentary drawing of artillery on the move may have been a study for wall-paintings showing an army on the march. The large carriage-mounted cannons are drawn by bullock teams and pushed from behind by the royal elephants. Master gunners, mainly European mercenaries, sit on each cannon giving directions. Elephants were widely used for extreme lifting and pushing, and heaving the artillery along was all in their day’s work.

  • Details

    Associated place
    AsiaIndiawest IndiaRajasthansouth Rajasthan Kota (place of creation)
    Date
    mid-18th century
    Material and technique
    brush drawing with colour on paper
    Dimensions
    frame 156.4 x 154.1 x 3 cm (height x width x depth)
    mount 135 x 131 cm (height x width)
    painting 134.8 x 134.4 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Lent by Howard Hodgkin.
    Accession no.
    LI118.60
  • 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. 108 on p. 250, p. 20, illus. p. 252

Past Exhibition

see (1)

Location

    • Returned to lender

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