CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.- An exhibition showcases most of the Fralin Museum of Art’s masterpieces of Indian painting with selected loans from collectors with links to the University. The Fralin collection of Indian works of art has been developed, in part, as a teaching tool to be used within the Museum’s academic setting. Originally included in manuscripts and albums, the miniature paintings at The Fralin represent a number of different painting traditions from the Indian subcontinent and range in date from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. Although most of these works are on paper, select paintings in the collection are on cloth. The exhibition explores various themes, including the stylistic relationship between Mughal and Rajput painting and the function of book illustration. Portraiture, religious and literary texts, and Ragamala paintings are particularly well represented in the The Fralin collection of Indian painting. Highlights include a rare sixteenth century imperial Mughal painting by Khem Karan, a Rasikapriya illustration done by the famous seventeenth century Mewari artist Sahibdin, and a portrait of the Guler ruler, Raja Bishan Singh, attributed to Nainsukh.

A catalogue of the Fralin Indian paintings collection accompanies the exhibition. The catalogue is an important contribution to current scholarship on Indian painting, as many of the exceptional works in The Fralin collection remain unpublished. Each entry includes a formal description of the painting as well as a discussion of the work’s historical significance. In addition, images of inscriptions have been incorporated into the catalogue in an appendix along with transliterations and transcriptions of this important documentation.

In addition, the show will travel to the following venues, after December 14th:

· The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College – January 14 – May 17, 2015

· San Antonio Museum of Art – November 6, 2015 – February 14, 2016

· William King Museum of Art – September 1 – December 1, 2016