Maharaja is one the exhibitions at he V&A at the moment, and it's definitely a very powerful show.When you first come in the gold wallpaper was something that already gave me a little hint of what was about to come a lot of rich items, but I certainly wasn't expecting the extravaganza I was about to see.What impressed me the most in the first instance was the amount of jewellery that was in that place, and the size of each diamond and rubies, and they were everywhere, on game boards, on shoes, on clubs, seats - perhaps if I didn't know any history i would think that old India was filthy rich country.
But the Maharaja exhibition goes far beyond the amazing jewellery (by the way, what was that last necklace form Cartier? wow!) extremely informative and full of paintings each with so much detail and history behind it, so were the objects being displayed everything had a meaning and was symbol to represent either power, status, identity and favour.
The second part is not as... cheerful, when the British enters in the Indian history you sort a feel a sad atmosphere, and how their culture was changing, the paintings from before, which they all had the same technique and style started to look a lot different and a bit more western.
I did think it tries to finish on a positive note with princess selling their goods, perhaps trying to change a bit the vast difference that existed in their cast system.
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