c. 1720
Gum tempera, ink, and hand-colored silver paper appliqué on paper
Overall: 35.5 x 23.5 cm (14 x 9 1/4 in.)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William E. Ward 1975.73
Instead of gold, artists applied strips of paper, colored with a mixture of silver paint and an organic yellow pigment called gamboge.
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.
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