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Mapping Asia – Final Wall Text, Object Labels, Catalogue Entries
india
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Mapping Asia – Final Object Label & Catalogue Entry
Object Label
Shakuntala looks back at Dushyanta
Oil on canvas
1898
Sri Chitra Art Gallery, Trivandrum
This painting portrays the scene where the lovers -Shakuntala and Dushyanta, parts after their first meeting. Ravi Varma constructed a romantic and desirable feminine image of Shakuntala in the woods as she is seen looking back at her lover, Dushyanta while pretending to remove a thorn from her feet. She appeared to be caught between her companions and her lover Dushyanta as her arm was on one of her companion’s shoulder while her gaze was on her lover.
A white clad figure at the far left of the painting is known to be a senior female ascetic named Gautami, appears to be leading the path that Shakuntala and her companions are following. The positions of these characters represent the hierarchy in which the older one leads and orders while the younger ones follow. Thus, Shakuntala’s body gesture depicts the struggle and the break she needs to make between tradition and modernity.
Through this representation of Shakuntala, Ravi Varma appears to portray on the debate of social reform of women in India; where the female body in his painting is not merely an object for aesthetic pleasure but also carries a hidden social message. In addition, it also reflects on the result of the social exhchange at railways that leads to the idea of modernity.
The idea of tradition versus modern as well as the influence of British on India’s economy, art and social culture affected Ravi Varma as an artist and the depiction of his subjects, from the use of medium to the multiple meanings in his painting.
Catalogue Entry
During the 19th century, the British Empire colonialized India, which resulted in a strong influence towards India’s economy, art and social culture. The construction of the modern railway system by the British investors made an important impact on the infrastructure development in India that enable the integration of markets, increase trade and stimulate social exchanges. This shaped the pace and the traffic flow of railways, which made an impact on India’s economy as one of the most important system for commercial purposes. During this period, people of different trades benefited from it and one of them is an artist named Raja Ravi Varma Coil Thampuran who uses the communication and social networking tool made possible by railways to procure more commissions and to establish a name for himself in India.
Raja Ravi Varma Coil Thampuran, a self-taught Indian painter from Travancore, is one of the leading academic painters during the Modern Indian Art Movement where the British establish art schools to propagate western values in art education. This caused a drastic change in the concept of art in India, as there was a difference between teaching practices of British and India.
Ravi Varma adopted western conventions and perspectives which led to the combination between the tradition and the modern and resulted to a creation of a new genre of mythological oil painting where Hindu mythological subject matters are painted in a realistic way instead of stylized and unnatural way.
During this period, the British also influence and intervened India’s social culture as they initiated the legislation to change some of their social customs that pertain to the benefit of the Indian women such as the Civil Marriage Act and the Married Women’s Property Act. This influenced Ravi Varma on his depiction of the subjects in his paintings.
This painting was based on a scene from Kalidasa’s play – The Recognition of Shakuntala, where it is considered to be the best work of the classic Sanskrit writer who dramatized the story of Shakuntala in Mahabharata, a love story in one of the two great Hindu epics. She is the child of Vishwamitra, one of the most respected sages in ancient India and the Apsara Menaka, one of the most beautiful supernatural female beings.
Her parents abandoned her as a newborn child in the forest and were adopted by Kanva, a renowned rishi of the Treta yuga. Years later through an encounter in the forest, she was married to King Dushyanta and had a son named Bharata. However, the family had experienced a period of separation but eventually reunited.
This painting portrays the scene where the lovers -Shakuntala and Dushyanta, parts after their first meeting. Ravi Varma constructed a romantic and desirable feminine image of Shakuntala in the woods as she is seen looking back at her lover, Dushyanta while pretending to remove a thorn from her feet. She appeared to be caught between her companions, Anansuya and Priyamvada, and her lover Dushyanta as her arm was on one of her companion’s shoulder while her gaze was on her lover.
A white clad figure with a stick in the hand at the far left of the painting is known to be a senior female ascetic named Gautami, who also lived in Kanva’s ashram, appears to be leading the path that Shakuntala and her companions are following. The positions of these characters represent the hierarchy in the context where the older one leads and orders while the younger ones follow.
Thus, Shakuntala’s body gesture depicts the struggle and the break she needs to make between tradition and modernity.
Through this representation of Shakuntala, Ravi Varma appears to portray on the debate of social reform of women in India; where the female body in his painting is not merely an object for aesthetic pleasure but also carries a hidden social message. In addition, it also reflects on the result of the social exhchange at railways that leads to the idea of modernity.
The idea of tradition versus modern as well as the influence of British on India’s economy, art and social culture affected Ravi Varma as an artist and the depiction of his subjects, from the use of medium to the multiple meanings in his painting.
Bibliography
Anil Relia, Dr Ratan Parimoo (2014, Nov 18). The Indian Portrait – 5: Colonial influence on Raja Ravi Varma and his Contemporaries, from https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=W06OBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA16&lpg=PA16&dq=Raja+Ravi+Varma+western+influence&source=bl&ots=Oxk2H4okGq&sig=VbuqB11pbpPNy4bzWUAd_ZCvcn8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAjgUahUKEwiOwoj58a3IAhVOBY4KHV-xB2E#v=onepage&q=Raja%20Ravi%20Varma%20western%20influence&f=false
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Rise of Modernity in South Asia, from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rmsa/hd_rmsa.htm
Wikimedia Commons (Image of Painting)
Tapati Guha Thakurta (1991, Oct 26). Women as ‘Calendar Art’ Icons: Emergence of Pictorial Stereotype in Colonial India, from
http://www.jstor.org.ezlibproxy1.ntu.edu.sg/stable/4398221
Dinkar, Niharika (2009, Dec 1). Modernity at the crossroads: Ravi Varma’s “Shakuntala Looks Back in Love”, from
Dr. Santosh Jaganath (2003). The History of Nizam’s Railways Systems, from
Mapping Asia – Individual Object Label Draft 3
Shakuntala looks back at Dushyanta
Oil on canvas
1898
Kilimanoor(India)
This painting portrays the scene where the lovers -Shakuntala and Dushyanta, parts after their first meeting. Ravi Varma constructed a romantic and desirable feminine image of Shakuntala in the woods as she is seen looking back at her lover, Dushyanta while pretending to remove a thorn from her feet. She appeared to be caught between her companions and her lover Dushyanta as her arm was on one of her companion’s shoulder while her gaze was on her lover.
A white clad figure at the far left of the painting is known to be a senior female ascetic named Gautami, appears to be leading the path that Shakuntala and her companions are following. The positions of these characters represent the hierarchy in which the older one leads and orders while the younger ones follow. Thus, Shakuntala’s body gesture depicts the struggle and the break she needs to make between the tradition of following orders and the modernity of choosing a man of her choice.
Through this representation of Shakuntala, Ravi Varma appears to portray on the debate of social reform of women in India; where the female body in his painting is not merely an object for aesthetic pleasure but also carries a hidden social message. In addition, it also reflects on the result of the social exhchange at railways that leads to the idea of modernity.
The idea of tradition versus modern as well as the influence of British on India’s economy, art and social culture affected Ravi Varma as an artist and the depiction of his subjects, from the use of medium to the multiple meanings in his painting.
Mapping Asia – Individual Object Label + Wall Text
Object Label
Shakuntala looks back at Dushyanta
Kilimanoor(India)
1898, Oil on canvas
This painting constructs a romantic and desirable feminine image of Shakuntala as she is seen looking back at her lover, Dushyanta while pretending to remove a thorn from her feet. Shakuntala is an important character in the Mahabharata, a love story in one of the two great Hindu epics. She is the child of Vishwamitra, one of the most respected sages in ancient India and the Apsara Menaka, one of the most beautiful supernatural female beings.
The King of the Devas, Indra was frightened by Vishwamitra’s power and sent Menaka from heaven to earth to distract him from his deep meditation. She succeeded in luring him and eventually bore a child by him. However, when he realized that Indra has tricked him, he was enraged and cursed Menaka to be separated from him. She had to leave for the heavenly realms and placed the newborn Shakuntala in the forest. Kanva, a renowned rishi of the Treta yuga, found the newborn child surrounded by Shakunta birds in the forest and raised her as his daughter whom he named her as Shakuntala.
One day, King Dushyanta was out on a hunting expedition in forest with his army when he first encountered Shakuntala at Kanva’s ashram. They fell in love with each other and got married. However, he needed to leave for his kingdom and offered his royal ring to her as a token of his love where he promised to come back to take her with him. Soon after he left, she gave birth to a son named Bharata. She spent most of the time dreaming of her husband and was often distracted by it. One day, a powerful rishi named Durvasa visited to her house but she failed to greet him properly as she was lost in thoughts of Dushyanta. Enraged by this scene, Durvasa cursed Shakuntala that Dushyanta would only remember her if she show him the royal ring that he gave as a token.
Time passed and Dushyanta failed to return to her. Shakuntala decided to visit him at his kingdom and set out for the capital city with her foster father. However, she lost the royal ring during the journey, which caused Dushyanta not being able to recognize her when she arrived at the court. Faced with humiliation and disappointment, she returned to the forest and took her son to settle in a wild part of the forest. Being surrounded by only wild animals, Bharata grew to be a strong youth.
One day, the royal ring was found and given back to Dushyanta where memories of Shakuntala came back to him. He went to Kanva‘s ashram only to find out that she was no longer there. He began to search deeper into the forest where he discovered Bharata opening the mouth of a lion to count its teeth. He approached the boy who then took him to his mother and the family reunited.
This painting is based on a scene from Kalidasa’s play – The Recognition of Shakuntala, where it is considered to be the best work of the classic Sanskrit writer who dramatized the story of Shakuntala in the epic Mahabharata.
The Influence of the British Empire on Indian Art
The Modern Indian Art Movement in Indian painting begun in the late 19th century where the old traditional paintings were disregarded and gave rise to the establishment of British art schools that propagated western values in art education. This caused a drastic change in the concept of art in India, as there was a difference between teaching practices of British and India. The westerners put emphasize on knowledge and science instead of religion and culture, which made art from a craft tradition to a technical skill that could be acquired easily.
This led to the change of Indian paintings in terms of medium (oil painting) and the perception of art (style, scale and subject matter). Indian painters adopted western conventions and perspectives with an attempt to copy European pictures and portraits. One of the leading academic painters that applied the fusion of Indian traditions with the western techniques was Raja Ravi Varma Coil Thampuran. He was a self-taught Indian painter from the princely state of Travancore whom had managed to learn art from Theodor Jenson; a Dutch portraitist that made Varma mastered the usage of canvas and oil colors, which resulted his style to be of European aesthetic ideals. The combination between the East and the West, the tradition and the modern, led to a creation of a new genre of mythological oil painting where Hindu mythological subject matters are painted in a naturalistic and realistic way instead of stylized and unnatural way yet at the same time, preserve the Indian’s traditional theme.
The themes of Varma’s paintings always encompass around the Indians as he had a desire to develop an internationally respected art style for Travancore. He is noted for his paintings of stories of Dushyanta and Shakuntala and Nala and Damayanti, characters that belong to the Hindu mythology.
Bibliography
Anil Relia, Dr Ratan Parimoo (2014, Nov 18). The Indian Portrait – 5: Colonial influence on Raja Ravi Varma and his Contemporaries
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Rise of Modernity in South Asia
Tapati Guha Thakurta (1991, Oct 26). Women as ‘Calendar Art’ Icons: Emergence of Pictorial Stereotype in Colonial India
Wikimedia Commons (Image of Painting)