Target Exam

CUET

Subject

Fine Arts

Chapter

The Rajasthani Schools of Painting

Question:

Observe the image and answer the following question.

Among the following Museums where this particular painting has been preserved.

Options:

National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi

Bihar Museum, Patna

National Museum, New Delhi

Kala Bhawan, Kolkata

Correct Answer:

National Museum, New Delhi

Explanation:

The correct answer is Option (3) → National Museum, New Delhi

This is Bani Thani painting by Nihal Chand. Bani Thani was Sawant Singh’s muse for the poetry he wrote, celebrating the love of Radha and Krishna. He writes about her in a poem Bihari Jas Chandrika, which became the basis for Nihal chand’s painting of Bani Thani, thus, representing a blending of poetry and painting. Troubled by fratricidal conflict, Sawant Singh, eventually, abdicated the throne in 1757 and retired to Vrindavan along with Bani Thani.
The exaggerated facial type of Kishangarh, which becomes the distinctive and salient stylistic feature of the Kishangarh School, is believed to have been derived from the attractively sharp facial features of Bani Thani. Artist Nihal Chand is attributed with the credit of contriving this exquisite and characteristic Kishangarh physiognomy that is perceived in figures of Sawant Singh and Bani Thani is always represented as Krishna and Radha in brilliantly coloured, panoramic landscapes. Radha’s face in Bani Thani as Radha is unique in her deeply curved eyes, exaggerated arch of the eyebrows, pointed nose, serpentine curl of hair spiralling down the cheek, thin lips and pronounced chin. This particular painting is in the collection of National Museum, New Delhi.