Fortified City of Ranthambhor

Fortified City of Ranthambhor

Bagta

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This topographical rendering of the immense Ranthambhor fort, with its twenty-four miles of walls, effectively emphasized Maharaja Jagat Singh’s military standing. The painting comes from the innovative generation of the great artist Bagta. While the landscape and obliquely presented structures relate to traditional Indian painting, their accurate distribution suggests a conceptual familiarity with the language of mapmaking. European prints had shown military fortifications from above for nearly three hundred years. Jagat Singh must have known some of these images and was thus positioning himself within this larger tradition.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.