Shiva Panchanana
1855
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1855
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Shiva Panchanana is a 1855 paint by Unknown, a Impressionism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows a blue-skinned figure with four arms, sitting cross-legged on a yellow platform. The figure has three eyes, a crown with small birds, and a necklace of beads. One arm holds a drum, another a small creature, and the others make hand gestures. The colors are bright—red, blue, and yellow—with bold black outlines. The figure’s calm pose and multiple arms suggest it might be a deity from Hindu tradition. The painting’s flat colors and clear lines look more like a pattern than realistic shading. Look up chiaroscuro to see how artists use light and shadow for depth.
The artwork is a painting on paper from 1855, created using opaque watercolour and tin alloy, and depicts the five-headed form of the Hindu deity Shiva. It was part of a larger album containing 196 mixed works, including prints, paintings, and drawings, primarily consisting of lithographs sold in markets and fairs across Upper India and Bengal. The album was assembled by J. Lockwood Kipling between 1865 and 1893 during his tenure as Principal of the Mayo School of Art in Lahore. It was later donated to the museum in 1917 by his son, Rudyard Kipling.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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