A Raja Receives Homage Outside the City: Page from a Dispersed Manuscript

Unknown Artist

Opaque watercolor and gold on paper

Metropolitan Museum of Art

This vibrant Indian miniature captures a courtly scene unfolding beneath the ramparts of a fortified city, its pastel-pink walls crowned with domed pavilions and chhatris rendered in coral, cream, and gold. Beneath an orange parasol, a raja and his attendants gather to receive homage, their jewel-toned robes of saffron, indigo, and crimson set against the muted sage-green sky and earthen hillside. The unknown artist employed the flattened perspective, decorative foliage, and jewel-like palette characteristic of Rajput painting traditions, balancing architectural precision with lively figural groupings. A page once bound within a now-dispersed manuscript, this work offers a glimpse into the refined visual storytelling of princely India and would bring warm, intricate color to any wall.