Los “pintorescos” retratos de los Rana en Nepal. El lenguaje transnacional de la élite en el siglo XX

Abstract

This article consists of a historical-critical analysis about the early development of contemporary Nepalese art at the beginning of the 20th century and throughout the autarchy of the maharajas Rana of Nepal. As initial hypothesis, it is established that contemporary Nepalese art emerges as a result of the round-trip myth, or “orientalism” versus “westernism,” which converge in the origin of a new form of visual art used as a means of international communication. It is analyzed how through contemporary painting and photography techniques, inherited from Western art, Nepalese elite used visual art as a tool to create their own “Eastern myth”. Especially, the idea of the “picturesque Himalaya” is relevant for this purpose. By hybridizing these new techniques with the idea of traditional art, it is concluded that it was thanks to these magnificent “self-divine” portraits, through the contemporary artist’s creative skill, how the Ranas stated their exotic power in the Himalayan nation with the ultimate aim of protecting the country’s independence.