Q. The well-known painting “Bani Thani” belongs to the

Answer: (d) Kishangarh school

Bani Thani painting belongs to the Kishangarh School.
Kishangarh School (18th century) of Indian painting emerged in the Princely State of Kishangarh (Central Rajasthan).
The school is clearly distinguished by its individualistic facial type and its religious intensity. The sensitive, refined features of the men and women are drawn with pointed noses and chins, deeply curved eyes, and serpentine locks of hair.
The brilliant series of paintings on the Radha– Krishna theme were due largely to the inspiration of Raja Savant Singh (reigned 1748–57). He was a poet also, who wrote under the name of Nagari Das.
The master artist largely responsible for transmitting the romantic and religious passions of his patron (i.e., Raja Savant Singh) into new and fresh visual images was Nihal Chand.

Around mid-18th century, as forces of Nadir Shah (1739) and Ahmad Shah Abdali (1744-1773) pillaged the Mughal capital of Delhi and surrounding areas, the birth of the Kangra School of painting at Haripur-Guler under the patronage of Raja Govardhan Chand (1744-1773) took place as he provided asylum to refugee artists trained in the Mughal style of painting.
Kangra painting is named after Kangra (Himachal Pradesh), a former Princely State.
These artists who were traditionally trained in the Mughal style (which predominately featured flattering portraits of their patrons and hunting scenes), now incorporated themes from the love poetry of Jayadeva, Bihari and Keshav Das who wrote ecstatically of the love of Radha and Krishna.

Between 17th-19th century, Bundi School of painting developed in the Princely State of Bundi and its neighbouring principality of Kotah (now Kota) both in present-day Rajasthan.
Its characteristic features are dramatic night skies, distinct of depicting water by light swirls against a dark background with special focus on highlighting lush vegetation.
The painting style reached its peak during the first half of the 18th century, but continued to flourish into the 19th century and had found exceptional patron like Maharao Ram Singh II (1828–66) under whom the art witnessed its brilliant phase.
One of the earliest examples of the Bundi paintings is the Chunar Ragamala painted in 1561.
Bundi paintings emphasized on hunting, courtscenes, festivals, processions, life of nobles, lovers,animals, birds and scenes from Lord Krishna’s life.

As the rulers of Jaipur (Amer) Princely State had close affiliation with the Mughals, the art which developed between the late 16th and early 18th century had syncretic elements of both Rajasthani style (which predominated the art style between 16th-17th century) and Mughal style.
With patronage of rulers like Savai Jai Singh and Pratap Singh, splendid portraits (aristocratic in nature) and large paintings centred around Lord Krishna became a signature of Rajasthani style.