Durga Mahisasuramardani: The Great Goddess killing the Buffalo demon, 18th century (Private Collection, New York)

Out of stage trappings of Western perspective, vestiges of Persian motifs such as the rocks or of Chinese elements such as the hat and the leafy wings of the Lion, a new form arises in the school of Bundi in the mid-18th century. It has for its ground the compact clarity of the colour surface of Indian painting in the preceding centuries of the 2nd millennium. The rotund solidity of the bodies within the firm curves of their outlines goes back to the classical tradition of Indian painting. An immediate inner vision of the life-and-death-giving myth welds together the several elements of the painting. -- 11 x 10 inches