SHIVA AND PARVATI DESCEND THE STEEP HILLS OF MOUNT KAILASA

Estimate

4,000 - 6,000 USD

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Description

SHIVA AND PARVATI DESCEND THE STEEP HILLS OF MOUNT KAILASA
Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper
image: 10 by 7 7/8 in. (25.4 by 19.7 cm)
folio: 11 by 9 in. (27.9 by 22.9 cm) unframed

Literature

Alice Heeramaneck, Masterpieces of Indian Painting, Verona, 1984 pl. 128, p. 137

Catalogue Note

Shiva reaches up to help Parvati who steps carefully downward, holding tight to their son Kartikeya, as they descend the slopes of Mount Kailasa. They travel through a valley - the tallest peak of Mount Kailasa already receding into the distance. Preceding the Holy Family strides Nandisvara, Shiva's monkey attendant, carrying a bundle of their belongings wrapped in a leopardskin bag on his head. Nandi the Bull follows slowly, cautiously carrying the baby Ganesha.

An imaginative version depicting the descent of the Holy Family through a landscape of schematic hillsides tinged green with light application of reddish-brown lateral brushstrokes - hilltops capped by lines of small trees. The largest trees counter-intuitively lining the farther hills in the upper register of the miniature.

Refer to Stella Kramrisch, Manifestations of Shiva, Philadelphia Museum of Art 1981, cat. P40, pps. 206-207.