AIC's 53rd Annual Meeting

Some of the most admired Indian court painters of all times worked for the Maharanas who ruled the princely state of Mewar from the majestic palaces of the city of Udaipur in Rajasthan between the 16th and the mid-20th centuries. The City Palace Museum in Udaipur (CPM) holds a rich collection of paintings on paper described as miniature in style but not in size, as they range from one to six feet in length. These were commissioned for the devotional practice of the elites, and also to portray the splendors of a highly cultural court life, as well as the activities that expanded beyond the walls of the palaces into the surrounding landscape, such as processions and hunting expeditions. Examples of these paintings exist also in the holdings of other museums and private collections. 

Few studies have been done to characterize the colorants and techniques employed in this workshop, and The CPM collection of Mewar paintings has not been subject to technical analysis yet. A recent collaborative project between The CPM and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (The Met) has brought for the first time the capability to perform Multiband Imaging (MBI) at The CPM and allowed the comparison of data among the two institutions. MBI for this project includes images obtained in the visible, infrared and ultraviolet regions of the electromagnetic spectrum with a full spectrum-modified digital camera. Information obtained with MBI was supplemented with XRF analysis. Lastly, observations made on painting practices, such as the setting of preparatory drawings or the use of admixtures of pigments to represent certain common elements, like bodies of water or vegetation, were also discussed with contemporary artists who continue to exercise miniature painting following the footsteps of their predecessors. Conservators from both museums describe together the methodology they employed to obtain images that rendered objectively comparable data and will share examples of some of the findings. 

Conservation is at its core the result of multidisciplinary expertise, and this case study truly illustrates the tremendous amount of collaboration that is necessary to accomplish technical imaging at this level. Conservators, curators, and officers from The CPM have worked closely with their peers at The Met. We have also benefited from the input of scientists, photographers and digital documentation specialists within the museum community and beyond. Specific discussions among these experts included best practices for color and tone calibration, workflows, light sources, filters and targets. The CPM is an international pioneer user of Met MCLED lights, a prototype multichannel LED lighting fixture designed at The Met with the intention to improve the quality and consistency of visible, ultraviolet and infrared radiation in a portable, affordable way. 

While MBI has become widespread practice in many parts of the world, it is still at an early phase of implementation among museum experts in India. This project has given colleagues in the Indian subcontinent the opportunity to reflect on the benefits and the challenges associated with this complex, ever-evolving method of looking at cultural heritage.