TEFAF Maastricht 2023

11th March, 2023 - 19th February, 2023

9 and 10 March by invitation only

Stand 140

Prahlad Bubbar is delighted to announce its participation, for the first time, in the world-renowned TEFAF art fair in Maastricht for 2023.

In keeping with the excellence and prestige of this important fair, we will present a group of masterpieces spanning five centuries, from the 17th to the early 20th centuries, and great exemplars of connoisseurship and masterful creativity.

Among the treasures we’ll be bringing is a highly important 15^th century Timurid voided velvet from Herat and from the time when the most important Persian artist of the time, Kamal al-din Behzad, was creating masterful miniatures with a representation of the most exquisite textiles and carpets. With its overall scheme of interlocking arabesques, the great union of art and science is made manifest through the delicacy and consistency of its floral motifs, a conceit that was subsequently taken up by artists of the Mughal and Deccani courts.

As an outstanding achievement in the field of miniature painting, we will present the remarkable folio ‘Timur Crosses the River Oxus’, painted by the renowned 17^th century Mughal master known as Bishandas, arguably the most celebrated artist at the court of the Mughal emperor Jahangir. This extraordinary painting illustrates the dramatic crossing of the Oxus River (Amu Darya) by Timur before the arrest of Naikpi Shah and the defeat of the army of the Qara’unas. It is full of the dynamic energy and chromatic delicacy that makes Mughal painting of this period so enchanting.

Also from the Mughal empire is an exquisite 17^th century jade-hilted dagger, a masterpiece of the lapidary arts whose hilt rendered in the most extraordinary detail in the form of a horse’s head. The pommel, carved from a light coloured nephrite-jade, is an artistic tour de force that likely portrays an Arabian stallion, which was generally regarded as the superior breed by the Mughals and, therefore, befitting the supreme status of its powerful owner. Even the smallest details are treated with the utmost sensitivity whilst the expressive features of the face invite comparison with the great contemporary animal artist of the time, Mansur, whose vivid portraits of animals and birds earned him the sobriquet Nadir al-Asr, “Wonder of the Age.”

In the contrasting medium of photography, we are delighted to exhibit the very rare image of Yeshwant Rao Holkar III, the Maharaja of Indore, taken by his friend, the surrealist master photographer Man Ray. As a great collector of early modernist design, the Maharaja surrounded himself with the aesthetic and philosophy of the 1930s avant-garde. As such, he collaborated with the greatest artists and designers of the time, including Man Ray, with whom he collaborated on numerous projects and personal images of himself and his beloved wife, the Maharani Sanyogita Devi. In this superb image, the Maharaja appears seated in an unguarded moment of personal enjoyment as, dressed in formal white-tie, he moves an unlit cigarette between his delicate fingers. His profile and deportment are immensely revealing of his innate elegance and playful character; as an image it is the paragon of the balance between the outward portrayal of formality and the intimate revelation of natural charm.

TEFAF Maastricht
11 – 19 March 2023
9 and 10 March by invitation only

MECC
Forum 100
6229 GV Maastricht
The Netherlands

Opening hours:
11am–7pm – Saturday, March 11 through Saturday, March 18
11am–6pm – Sunday, March 19