The Sheep-eater exhibiting his powers at Fategarh in Uttar Pradesh on 3 March 1796
1800
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1800
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
The Sheep-eater exhibiting his powers at Fategarh in Uttar Pradesh on 3 March 1796 is a 1800 paint by Unknown, a Patna School of Painting work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows a sheep-eater performing in front of a crowd. He is eating a sheep in different stages. You can see him holding the sheep and tearing it open. This painting is interesting because it shows a unique performance. The artist likely made it for a British audience in India. To learn more about the style and method used to create this painting, look at the technique of impasto.
This Company painting depicts seven sequential stages of a man in a red dhoti consuming a sheep, beginning with holding the animal in his mouth and ending with eating a salad of caustic madar leaves. The work records a performance witnessed by Major-General Hardwicke at Fatehgarh, Uttar Pradesh, on 3 March 1796, later documented in a 1832 paper to the Royal Asiatic Society. The subject, a member of the Aghori ascetic sect, demonstrates raw meat consumption as part of ritual practice. The painting is one of 49 watercolors in the volume *Views in India*, acquired by the institution in 1887.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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