Shiva and Parvati Playing Chaupar

Shiva and Parvati Playing Chaupar: Folio from a Rasamanjari Series

Shiva and Parvati Playing Chaupar: Folio from a Rasamanjari Series

Artist:Devidasa of Nurpur (active ca. 1680–ca. 1720)
Date:dated 1694–95
Culture:India (Basohli, Jammu)
Medium:Opaque watercolor, ink, silver, and gold on paper
Dimensions:Image: 6 1/2 x 10 7/8 in. (16.5 x 27.6 cm)
Sheet: 8 x 12 1/4 in. (20.3 x 31.1 cm)
Framed: 15 5/8 x 20 1/2 in. (39.7 x 52.1 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Dr. J. C. Burnett, 1957
Accession Number:57.185.2
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 464

This painting belongs to a series illustrating the Rasamanjari (Essence of the Experience of Delight), a fifteenth-century Sanskrit love poem by Bhanudatta devoted to the expression and classification of the moods and emotions of the nayaka ( hero-lover) and nayika ( heroine-loved). It originated in the first treatise on dramatic arts, Bharata’s Natyashastra. In this highly charged scene, enlivened by bold coloring and spatial ambiguities, Parvati is pleading with her husband, Shiva, who has just cheated her out of a necklace in a game of chaupar. The symbolic use of color and gesture is a signature feature of the Basohli school of this period.

Provenance

Probably in collection of Cora Timken Burnett , Alpine, New Jersey (until d. 1956; bequeathed to husband);; Dr. John Clawson Burnett , Alpine, New Jersey (until 1957, donated to MMA)

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