Dora Tan
Specialist
Lot 532
AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A RASIKAPRIYA SERIES:
THE 'AGREEABLE' HERO
THE 'AGREEABLE' HERO
BUNDI, 1670-80
21 March 2023, 18:00 EDT
New YorkUS$8,000 - US$12,000
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AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A RASIKAPRIYA SERIES:
THE 'AGREEABLE' HERO
THE 'AGREEABLE' HERO
BUNDI, 1670-80
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; recto inscribed in Devanagari in the yellow panel above with the text of Keshav Das's Rasikapriya on the Anukul nayaka (2.5); verso inscribed with the date of entry of 'this painting of Radha and Krishna' into an unnamed collection on the ninth day of the bright half of Kartika in Samvat 1809 (1752-53 CE).
Image: 10 3/4 x 5 7/8 in. (27.3 x 14.9 cm);
Folio: 12 1/8 x 7 3/8 in. (30.9 x 18.8 cm)
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; recto inscribed in Devanagari in the yellow panel above with the text of Keshav Das's Rasikapriya on the Anukul nayaka (2.5); verso inscribed with the date of entry of 'this painting of Radha and Krishna' into an unnamed collection on the ninth day of the bright half of Kartika in Samvat 1809 (1752-53 CE).
Image: 10 3/4 x 5 7/8 in. (27.3 x 14.9 cm);
Folio: 12 1/8 x 7 3/8 in. (30.9 x 18.8 cm)
Footnotes
In discussion of this painting's subject, style, and series, Losty notes, "In Canto Il of the Rasikapriya, Keshav Das's classic text on the literary aesthetics of love...the author deals with heroes, whom he divides into four categories: anukul (agreeable), dakshin (dexterous), shatha (deceitful), and drishta (brazen). This painting illustrates the 'open' agreeable hero, in which the heroine's companion tells her how pure, innocent, and good she is, so 'Tell me how did you win over Krishna who is so crafty?'...In the veranda of a pavilion the heroine is seated discussing her lover with her friend as the nayaka (Krishna himself in princely garb) who has clearly just left their company listens outside in a domed vestibule. He stands undecided, twisting the ends of his dupatta: his legs suggest he is leaving, but his body and head are twisted round the better to listen, illustrating his 'craftiness.'"
Published:
Jerry Losty, Of Royal Patronage: Indian Paintings from 16th to the 19th Centuries, Carlton Rochell Asian Art, New York, 2020, p. 69, no. 25.
Provenance:
Moti Chandra, Mumbai
Pramod Chandra, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1964-2014
American Private Collection
Dr. Moti Chandra, the eminent art historian, author, numismatist, and Indologist, was Director of the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya) for over thirty years. His son, Dr. Pramod Chandra, was Harvard University's George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asian Art for twenty-four years and was described in a tribute in the Harvard Gazette as an "exemplar of the most exacting standards in the scholarship of Indian art history." As well as a beloved professor, Pramod Chandra was a celebrated author and curator, including guest curator of the renowned 1985 exhibition "The Sculpture of India" at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The contributions of both father and son to the appreciation and understanding of Indian art cannot be overstated.