Explore the remarkable collection of Indian paintings and drawings of the artist Howard Hodgkin.
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.
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. 109 on p. 250, p. 20, illus. pp. 251 & 253
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