Shakuntala (Raja Ravi Varma)

Shakuntala or Shakuntala looking for Dushyanta is an epic painting by Indian painter Raja Ravi Varma.

Shakuntala
Shakuntala looking for Dushyanta.
ArtistRaja Ravi Varma Edit this on Wikidata
Year1898
SubjectShakuntala and her friends
Dimensions110 cm (43 in) × 181 cm (71 in)
LocationSree Chitra Art Gallery

Ravi Varma depicts Shakuntala, an important character of Mahabharata, pretending to remove a thorn from her foot, while actually looking for her husband/lover, Dushyantha, while her friends tease her and call her bluff.

Tapati Guha-Thakurta, an art historian, wrote;

[T]his very gesture – the twist and turn of head and body – draws the viewer into the narrative, inviting one to place this scene within an imagined sequence of images and events. On its own, the painting stands like a frozen tableau (like a still from a moving film), plucked out of an on-running spectacle of episodes. These paintings also reflect the centrality of the "male gaze" in defining the feminine image. Though absent from the pictorial frame, the male lover forms a pivotal point of reference, his gaze transfixes Shakuntala, as also Damayanti, into "desired" images, casting them as lyrical and sensual ideals.[1]

References
  1. Karline McLain (2009). India's Immortal Comic Books: Gods, Kings, and Other Heroes. Indiana University Press. p. 69. ISBN 9780253220523.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.