Artwork Page for Ravana addresses Sita in the garden of Lanka, from Chapters 53 and 54 of the Aranya Kanda (Book of the Forest) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey)

Details / Information for Ravana addresses Sita in the garden of Lanka, from Chapters 53 and 54 of the Aranya Kanda (Book of the Forest) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey)

Ravana addresses Sita in the garden of Lanka, from Chapters 53 and 54 of the Aranya Kanda (Book of the Forest) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey)

c. 1725

Northern India, Pahari kingdoms

Medium
Gum tempera, gold, and silver on paper
Measurements
Painting: 55.5 x 79 cm (21 7/8 x 31 1/8 in.); Overall: 56.3 x 81 cm (22 3/16 x 31 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of George P. Bickford 1966.143
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Did You Know?

Ravana’s wives take the forms of beautiful women and fearsome demonesses.

Description

The viewer is cut off from Lanka by the surrounding sea and the city’s golden walls in this expansive composition probably intended for courtly display This choice of perspective cleverly emphasizes the captivity of the Sita, faithful wife of the hero Rama. She kneels beneath an ashoka tree, guarded by demonesses. The princess’s abductor, the 10-headed and 20-armed demon lord of Lanka, Ravana, appears twice in the image. In the palace, he consults his council of minions. At the right, he hears Sita’s refusal to marry him. Ravana neither harms her, nor sets her free.
A horizontally oriented tempera painting depicts two scenes behind a yellow-gold wall, one within a square, gold building on the left and another in a garden on the right. Central to both scenes, a gray-skinned, black-bearded, 10-headed and 20-armed demon Ravana holds various weapons. Left, blue or red-skinned horned minions encircle him. On the right, he stands before a woman kneeling under a tree, red, yellow-orange, and black skinned tusked figures behind her and two women behind him.

Ravana addresses Sita in the garden of Lanka, from Chapters 53 and 54 of the Aranya Kanda (Book of the Forest) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey)

c. 1725

Northern India, Pahari kingdoms

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