Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Images of beautiful Indian miniature paintings

Peter Blohm has a website called Indian Miniature Paintings. It's packed full of gems, exquisite antique miniature paintings for sale and image archives of those he's already sold. One painting more interesting than the next. I had a glorious time going through the pictures and picked some of my favorites.

Lady on a palace terrace reads by candlelight a letter 
from her beloved. Murshidabad, circa 1760. 

Tantric illustration relating to palmistry. Rajasthan, 
probably Mewar, circa 1820-40. 




Tantric folio: Vishnupada. Rajasthan, probably Mewar, circa 1820-40.





Lakshminarayana - Vishnu with Lakshmi seated on a lotus throne. 
Kangra, circa 1820-40. 
Shiva seated on the crescent moon holding attributes of axe and antelope.* Jaipur, circa 1880. Opaque watercolour with gold on card. 
Devi (The Goddess) as Mahagauri on her bull vahana (mount) . Kangra, circa 1840-50. Opaque watercolour with minerals and tooled gold on wasli.
Bhagavata Purana illustration: Gajendramoksha.* Jaipur, circa 1820 - 30.
 The king of elephants, Gajendra, when at a lakeside taking a drink of water was grabbed by the jaws of a hungry crocodile and a tug of war ensued between them lasting one thousand years. Exhausted, Gajendra could resist no longer and was about to die when he appealed to Vishnu by singing a hymn of praises. Vishnu then appeared to save him, his descent to the lakeside the subject of the picture, with his vahana (vehicle) Garuda above whilst above the skies the gods rain flowers upon them.
Basohli painting, Radha and Krishna
Rajasthan, Bikaner Vishnu venerated by Narada Circa 2nd part 19th century
Rajasthan, Bikaner Sita, Rama, Hanuman & attendant Circa 1800
Markandeya Purana illustration: devas (gods) beseeching devis (goddesses) to unleash shakti (female-derived divine power) against the buffalo demon. Mandi, 
circa 1820-40.
Folio from a ragamala: Nand
ana putra son of Malkos. Kurnool, circa 1750. Opaque watercolour and tooled gold on wasli.
Rajasthan, Bikaner Devgandhar Ragini Circa 1700
The Devi as Sarasvati. Bundi, circa late 18th century. Opaque watercolour on wasli.
Krishna fluting for Radha at a jharokha (overhanging balcony). Jaipur, circa 1880. Opaque watercolour with gold on wasli
Illustration to the Ramayana: exiled in the forest with Lakshmana and their army of monkeys and bears, Rama gives counsel. Jaipur, circa 1880. Opaque watercolour with gold on wasli
Vaishnava tilaks - sectarian marks - on the monkeys' and presumably bear-king Jambuvan's foreheads signal the manner of (human) Vaishnavas their affiliation to Vishnu. The monkeys also wear jewellery of gold and pearls with garlands of flowers, as if they were high-ranking officers and courtiers in a royal palace.
Hyderabad, circa 1720 - 30. Opaque watercolour with gold on wasli mounted on an album page. 
The five Beatty album folios illustrate a romance between the Queen of the Fairies and a mortal prince.
The Holy Family in tantric form: Shiva Panchmukha (five-headed) sits on a tiger skin, his consort Parvati covering all of his eyes with her hands to protect all from his incinerating gaze, his son Ganesha sits on his lap, in the foreground lie Shiva's vahana (mount) Nandi and Parvati's lion. Bengal, circa 1820. Opaque watercolour with gold on wasli.
Yantra. Rajasthan, circa 19th century. Red ink with black ink nagari text on wasli
Gujarat Kundalini Yantra Circa 1900

3 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. It would have been right if you had acknowleged use for so many of my paintings/images which you took from my website www.indianminiaturepaintings.com. But you haven't. Why not?

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  3. My apologies, you did. Thanks for crediting me. So many of my paintings/images are used without acknowledgement that I jumped to the wrong conclusion.

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