Three religious mendicant couples
1830
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1830
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Dominant colour
Three religious mendicant couples is a 1830 paint by Unknown, a Patna School of Painting work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows three couples who are religious mendicants, or beggars. They are dressed in simple clothes and have few belongings. The couple on the left is special because they follow a specific philosopher named Ramanuja, who lived in the 11th century. His image is on the man's flag, which helps identify them. They are part of a larger group of paintings made by Indian artists for the British in India, called Company paintings. You can learn more about this style at the museum where this painting is kept, the Victoria and Albert Museum.
This watercolour and gouache painting on paper, part of a set of thirty Company paintings, depicts three pairs of religious mendicants. The first pair, non-Brahmin Vaishnavites devoted to Ramanuja, carry begging bowls and a flag bearing his image; the second pair belong to a non-Brahmin priest caste; the third pair, also non-Brahmin, include a man blowing a conch shell and holding a begging bowl, and a woman carrying a skin bag and a peacock-feather fan, with a lamp burning between them. The inscriptions identifying each couple appear in Telugu or Tamil. The volume, which also includes…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Your cart is empty
Explore artworks →
