Artwork Page for Sugriva

Details / Information for Sugriva

Sugriva

c. 1720
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Southern India, Andhra Pradhesh

Medium
Gum tempera, ink, and hand-colored silver paper appliqué on paper
Measurements
Overall: 35.5 x 23.5 cm (14 x 9 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William E. Ward 1975.73
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

Instead of gold, artists applied strips of paper, colored with a mixture of silver paint and an organic yellow pigment called gamboge.

Description

The seated monkey king Sugriva presents the “fear not” gesture with his right hand. He served as Rama’s faithful ally during the war against Ravana. This work appears to have been made for French Jesuit missionaries by South Indian temple muralists. During the 1700s, missionaries commissioned sets of paintings from which they learned about the gods and literary figures popular among the people of the region.
A vertical tempera painting features a seated, red-skinned figure with monkey traits beneath a tasseled red curtain. He wears a towering, tiered black headdress and dense strands of white beads. His large, circular eyes gaze left while one hand rests against his chest. A slender red tail curves upward into the white background. Encased in a red and yellow border, the composition includes handwritten script in the upper and lower margins.

Sugriva

c. 1720

Southern India, Andhra Pradhesh

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