English: painting / album

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   Object type
       painting term details
       album term details
   Museum number

   1993,0806,0.39
   Description

Gouache painting on paper from an album of eighty-two paintings of Hindu deities. Four-armed and thousand-eyed Indra carries in his upper right hand a vajra (thunderbolt), formed by six rhomboidal elements, with a sword in his upper left. In his lower right he holds a shield and in his lower left another smaller vajra. His many eyes are distributed equally over his four arms.

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   School/style
       Company School term details
   Date
       1850 (circa)
   Production place
       Painted in: Tamil Nadu
       (Asia,India,Tamil Nadu)
   Materials
       paper
   Technique
       painted term details
   Dimensions
       Height: 32.4 centimetres (page)
       Width: 29 centimetres (page)
   Inscriptions
           Inscription Type
           inscription
           Inscription Position
           lower border
           Inscription Language
           French
           Inscription Content
           Dévindren roi des saints de Sorca.
   Curator's comments

   Dallapiccola 2010:
   Indra sports a bushy moustache often seen in mid-nineteenth-century portraits.

This album of eighty-two paintings of Hindu deities is bound in a wooden cover carved with the image of a female figure playing a vina, surrounded by a creeper. It comprises of an almost equal number of Vaishnava and Shaiva themes, a complete set of images of the ashtadikpalas, and a group of murtis (sacred images of a deity) worshipped in specific temples. The exceptional feature of this work is the inclusion of a group of grama devatas, local deities worshipped in rural areas.

The album contains a number of images of murtis worshipped at specific sites, and the geographical distribution of these sites and the presence of local deities such as Kattavarayan, might indicate that this album was produced either in north or central Tamil Nadu.

The paintings are inscribed with French captions, which are carefully written by two different hands, one of which appears only very occasionally. The text of the captions gives only the name of the depicted deity and, if necessary, a short explanation of the illustrated incident. A few inscriptions are not accurate. The names have been phonetically transcribed to suit the French pronunciation of Indian names.

The artist is conversant with an almost ‘impressionistic’ brushwork style, used consistently in rendering the crowns of the trees, which is at odds with the stiff and formal treatment used in the drawings of the deities, imitating the style of woodcut prints of the mid to late nineteenth century. The figures are somewhat heavily built, with the draping of their clothing emphasized.

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   Bibliography
       Dallapiccola 2010 cat. 9.39 bibliographic details
   Subjects
       hinduism term details
       deity term details
   Associated names
       Representation of: Indra biography
   Acquisition name
       Funded by: Brooke Sewell Permanent Fund biography
       Purchased from: Pablo Butcher biography
   Acquisition date

   1993
   Department

   Asia
   Registration number

1993,0806,0.39