Untitled by Manaku

This is "An Indian Hill Scene," painted around 1725 by the Pahari artist Manaku. It is a single folio from a larger manuscript series, and its entire background is built from burnished gold. In the early 18th century, a commission like this announced a patron of serious wealth.

Look at the line quality first. Manaku drew every tree, every figure, every balcony with an outline of gold ink, then glazed thin layers of opaque watercolor over the top. The effect is a painting that glows from within. Notice the dark hill mass pushing the landscape into depth, and the tiny figures with cattle on the crest, rendered so small you almost miss them.

The narrative is a frantic chase: a dark-complexioned demon in ragged garments pursues figures in white across a bridge. Monkeys scramble over rooftops, and royal observers watch from an upper balcony, a classic Pahari device for placing authority above the action. Scholars believe the scene depicts an episode from the Ramayana epic.

Manaku worked in the Himalayan foothills from about 1725 to 1760. He and his brother Nainsukh are now recognized as two of the finest painters of the Pahari school. Very few folios by Manaku survive. When one appears, the price is never small.