Enquiry about object: 10252
Regally-Attired Vaishnava Priest
Mysore, Karnataka, India 19th century
height: approximately 25.5cm, width: 8.3cm, depth: 6.7cm, weight: 221g
Provenance
UK art market
This splendid image of a Vaishnava (follower of Vishnu) priest is of carved wood, gesso, pigment and copious gold leaf. Such an image was likely commissioned to adorn the domestic shrine in a wealthy household.
Almost certainly it is by the same maker as two images illustrated in Pal (2016, p. 145 and 191) attributed to 19th century Mysore.
It shows the priest dressed in long robes, with a high crown and holding a bowl and a short ringed staff. His skin is coloured with blue pigment and he has a Vaishnava tilaka on his forehead signifying his devotion to Vishnu or Krishna. The figure stands on a rectangular base.
The image is in very fine condition. There are no losses; there are old superficial surface cracks to the paint, as can be expected. The age of the figure if very clear.
References
Pal, P. (ed.), Puja and Piety: Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist Art from the Indian Subcontinent, Santa Barbara Museum of Art/University of California Press, 2016.
