Awards
2011 Charles Rufus Morey Book Award
Molly Emma Aitken, The Intelligence of Tradition in Rajput Court Painting
Molly Emma Aitken, The Intelligence of Tradition in Rajput Court Painting (2010)
Informed by history, connoisseurship, and contemporary artistic practice, Molly Emma Aitken’s The Intelligence of Tradition in Rajput Court Painting (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010) is an original contribution to the history of South Asian art for both the specialist and nonspecialist. Her closely argued yet accessible account overturns long-held assumptions regarding the conservatism of Rajasthani miniatures, revealing the subtle yet powerful dynamism that animates this tradition.
Aitken acknowledges that the “enormous red-tipped eyes, narrow skulls, and squat or strangely arching bodies” of the figures depicted in these miniatures can seem formulaic or alienating. But these images cannot be understood as mere repetitions of moribund conventions. Instead, the author shows that these court paintings were intended to elicit emotional states from the viewer, a conclusion she reaches through an innovative application of formal analysis and social history. The Intelligence of Tradition in Rajput Court Painting is a particularly informative and satisfying discussion of one of the most important cultural aspects of the art of South Asia.
As important as her book is for South Asian studies, The Intelligence of Tradition in Rajput Court Painting also intervenes provocatively in broader art-historical issues. For instance, Aitken reasserts the centrality of formal analysis for interpretation. Her close attention to visual evidence allows her to raise questions about artists’ negotiation of the work of their predecessors and about the way interactions among different visual idioms manifest themselves. By positing “the intelligence of tradition,” Aitken recasts the negative connotations often associated with art that abides by existing conventions into a much subtler and positive characterization that provides insight into many artistic cultures. She consistently resists the temptation to speak only to specialists, while also maintaining the highest level of scholarship. Her ability to bring her observations about Rajput painting to bear on contemporary art practices in South Asia is also unusual and valuable.
It is rare that an author working outside the “Western tradition” can make such a compelling case for the importance and interest of a poorly studied group of objects, while both illuminating these objects and shedding light on problems of general significance to the history of art.
Jury: Elizabeth Mansfield, New York University, chair; Suzanne Blier, Harvard University; Cammy Brothers, University of Virginia; Robert Randolf Coleman, University of Notre Dame; and Benjamin Withers, University of Kentucky.
