Delhi Paintings .
The Ajanta Cave frescoes, and those of the caves of Bagh in Malwa, are a sufficient proof of the ancient aptitude of the natives of India for painting. They are quite equal in merit to the paintings of the same age in Europe, and have a strange resemblance in many ways to the almost contemporary frescoes of the catacombs at Rome. Mr. J. L. Kipling, in the articles which he has contributed to the Lahore Guile, 1876, refers with the highest approbation to the fresco painting on the walls of the Mosque of Wazir Khan in that city : — “This work, which is very freely painted and good in style, is true fresco paint- ing, the buono fresco of the Italians, and like the inlaid ceramic work, is now no longer practised, modern-native decoration being usually fresco secco , or mere distemper painting. The reason of this is that there has been no demand for this kind of work for many years. Though the builder was a native of the Panjab, the style is more Perso-Mogol, and less Indian than that of any other building in this city.”
Pictorial painting of a rude kind is practised everywhere in India, and is produced in extraordinary quantities on the occa- sion of the annual festivals of the different gods. The paintings on talc sold at Patna, Benares, and Tanjore are often seen in ^Jhis country. But the best, and widest known of all are the Delhi paintings on ivory, in the style of European miniatures, already mentioned under jewelry. They are often of great merit. The first Delhi painter of my time in Bombay was Zulfikar Ali Khan, on whose work I officially reported in 1863. and who I find from Captain Cole’s admirable Catalogue of the Objects of Indian Art formerly exhibited at South Kensington Museum, sent the best Indian miniatures to the Annual Inter- national Exhibitions of 1S71 and 1872. Mr. Baden Powell
