Gold Figure of Ranganata
1800
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1800
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Gold Figure of Ranganata is a 1800 paint by Unknown, a Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows a temple festival in India around 1800. A silver idol sits on a horse in a bright procession. The temple’s tall gateways rise behind in gold and red. The artist painted the Vaiyali festival at Ranganata temple. This was a major event for devotees. It shows how faith and art merged in daily life. Look up the Victoria and Albert Museum next.
The painting depicts a procession during the Vaiyali festival at the Vaisnavite temple of Ranganata in Srirangam, near Tiruchirapalli, where male devotees carry a portable silver image of the deity on horseback in a palanquin. A pennant-bearer on an elephant accompanies the procession, while the temple’s walls and gateways, including the Temple of Raghunathaswami, appear in the background. Typical of early 19th-century works commissioned by European expatriates, the image offers a naturalistic record of devotional practices in India before the advent of photography.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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