Strange and Wondrous: Prints of India from the Robert J. Del Bonta Collection

As global travel boomed from the 16th to the 20th century, merchants, soldiers, and missionaries documented their visits to India and other foreign lands in illustrated accounts. Created using such techniques as engraving, aquatint, lithography, and photogravure, these subjects and designs were easily duplicated, and copies circulated widely. Prints of Indian ascetics, Hindu deities, and religious ceremonies fascinated Europeans and Americans. Drawing from the encyclopedic collection of Robert J. Del Bontà, Strange and Wondrous brings together an exceptional group of 50 prints that show how perceptions of Indian culture shifted through the centuries, from the Enlightenment to the colonial period and into modernity.