Maharana Amar Singh II with Ladies of the Zenana outside the Picture Hall at Rajnagar ca. 1707–8 Attributed to Stipple Master Indian Rajnagar, not far from Udaipur, had a special importance for Amar Singh II and therefore also for his artists. Around the years 1692–98, the Stipple Master served as painter to Prince Amar Singh (the future Maharana Amar Singh II). In this work—as in many others by the Stipple Master—Amar Singh II appears naked to the waist, and the painter’s technique of dots and short strokes is clearly visible on his subject’s torso. The background is largely unpainted, and co

Maharana Amar Singh II with Ladies of the Zenana outside the Picture Hall at Rajnagar ca. 1707–8 Attributed to Stipple Master Indian Rajnagar, not far from Udaipur, had a special importance for Amar Singh II and therefore also for his artists. Around the years 1692–98, the Stipple Master served as painter to Prince Amar Singh (the future Maharana Amar Singh II). In this work—as in many others by the Stipple Master—Amar Singh II appears naked to the waist, and the painter’s technique of dots and short strokes is clearly visible on his subject’s torso. The background is largely unpainted, and color accents are employed with great restraint. Particularly apparent is the artist’s use of a hierarchical ordering that depicts the prince larger than the attendant ladies of the zenana. About the Artist Stipple MasterActive at the Court of Amar Singh II, Udaipur, ca. 1690–1715 Following the pioneering career of Sahibdin, painters in Udaipur, Rajasthan, mainly reproduced illustrations for religious manuscripts based on his compositions. Toward the end of the seventeenth century, an artist arrived at the court who would establish a style that persisted for nearly thirty years under the prince and later ruler Amar Singh II (r. 1698–1710) and his successor Maharana Sangram Singh II (r. 1710–1734). He is identified as the Stipple Master. The style of this anonymous artist remained a singular phenomenon at the court. He favored a nearly monochrome approach, a style with precedents in both Mughal and Deccan painting, the nim qalam technique. Amar Singh likely became aware of the technique through exposure to Mughal examples. It is also documented that the ruler was interested in paintings from Bundi and Kota, and therefore, works from those places, influenced by the Chunar Ragamala Masters provided another avenue of Mughalesque influence. The range of subjects that can be attributed to the Stipple Master makes it clear that he had direct access to his patron. Inc

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