Arts 245A: The Art of India Since 1300 (Spring '17)

As South Asian temple complexes expand, they become entire cities and they share the form of kings’ palatial fort-complexes. Expanding outward in concentric rings from their sacred, private cores, these temples and palaces, as well as garden-tombs and houses of government for the British Raj, create visions of divine transcendence on earth, transformative spaces where every visitor has a chance to engage with the ultimate order of creation. This course also explores the paintings made for the people who inhabited these palaces, with special attention to delicate Mughal portraits, impassioned love lyrics favored by Rajput princes, and spaces magically transformed by the presence of the sacred–Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, and Muslim. Special attention in this course is devoted to analyzing elements that lend South Asian art its distinctive character.