Indian Miniatures: The Ehrenfeld Collection

While Persian miniatures are perennial favorites in the U.S., those of India have scarcely made an impact. An exhibition of Indian miniatures, touring the nation during the year-long Festival of India celebration, should bring this art of tremendous subtlety and emotional power to a broad public. This jewel of an album catalogues the exhibit. Elegantly slipcased and gold-lettered, it includes 135 full-page color reproductions, brief, enlightening commentaries on each plate, and three specialized essays that will prove too academic for the general reader. To decree these pictures ""miniatures'' obscures their importance, depth, range and variety. Among the many masterpieces we find a naturalistic study of an elephant and its young; a mystical god, half-man, half-woman; a gleeful caricature of ascetics intoxicated with marijuana; portraits of Krishna as ideal child, macho role model and guru; a four-armed Vishnu incarnated as a boar, attending Earth as it emerges from the cosmos. Scenes depict lovers, architecture, historical incidents, personifications of musical modes. A notable collection. November 22