Indian Company School, Pratyangira Hindu Goddess Deity – Mid-19th-century gouache painting
Indian Company School, Pratyangira Hindu Goddess Deity – Mid-19th-century gouache painting
Indian Company School, Pratyangira Hindu Goddess Deity – Mid-19th-century gouache painting
Indian Company School, Pratyangira Hindu Goddess Deity – Mid-19th-century gouache painting

Indian Company School Pratyangira Hindu Goddess Deity

£410.00
£410.00
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View the full Collection: Indian Mica Paintings

An original mid-19th-century gouache painting – Indian Company School, Pratyangira Hindu Goddess Deity.

A wonderfully vivid and detailed Indian Company painting on mica of the Trichinopoly School, depicting the Hindu goddess Pratyangira.

Pratyangira is a fierce and powerful goddess, described to be the shakti (female energy) of the deity Narasimha and worshipped for her ability to protect and destroy negative forces. She is represented as a goddess with a male lion's face and a female human body, here depicted with a fiery red mane. She holds a pasha (serpent noose), symbolising the binding of evil or negative energies, and damaru (hand drum), representing the cosmic sound of creation and time.

This is one a group of three deity subjects on mica that we have for sale (see stock numbers KE-065 and KE-067).

Indian Company paintings on mica are rare; it is estimated that as of now, there are only around 7,000 mica paintings available in the world. This painting being a boat subject is particularly rare.

The mica is loose with no mount or backing.

+ Read the S&W Collection Research

Indian Mica Paintings

Indian mica paintings featured a wide range of subject matter, including Hindu gods and goddesses, religious events, trades people and flora and fauna of the subcontinent. They were very popular around the middle of the nineteenth century, being produced for the colonial tourist market: they imitated paintings on glass, which were popular in Europe at the time.

Mica paintings are generally small, and painted in gouache on one side of very thin, flexible sheets. Mica is a transparent mineral which is found throughout south India. The mica is formed between strata of granite, and the transparency of the material is a result of the heat and pressure created between layers of rock. Mica consists of many interlocking platelets, resulting in a laminar structure which can be split easily into thin sheets.

The appeal of mica as a support for painting is due to its very smooth surface: the paint sits on it without sinking in, making the colours very intense. Mica is a very brittle substance, however, meaning that it is relatively rare to find examples in perfect condition.

COA
+ Artwork Details

Dimensions: Height: 15.6cm (6.14") Width: 10cm (3.94")

Presented: Unframed.

Medium: Gouache

Age: Mid-19th-century

Signed: No.

Inscribed: No.

Dated: --

Condition: The sheet is delicate as there is a crack at the centre of the left edge which extends halfway across the mica. This could be shored up by a frame and is not especially visible. There are a small number of tiny spots of flaked paint. Other scattered marks on the photo are marks of minor delamination of the mica. Please see photos for detail.

Stock number: KE-066