Jain Manuscript Painting
Category: | Jain Art |
Type: | Miniature painting |
Motif: | Female dancer |
Name: | Celestial performer |
Manuscript: | Kalpasutra manuscript folio |
Union state: | Gujarat |
Country: | India |
Date: | c. 1490 |
Style: | Western Indian style |
Material: | Ink, opaque watercolor on paper |
Length: | 29,2 cm |
Width: | 11,4 cm |
Custody: | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Purchase: | Margery and Harry Kahn Gift, 1977 (1977.41) |
Description: | In Jain cosmology, Shakra's heaven is a blissful place where the Jinas reside for eternity. It is populated by celestial dancers, seen here as beautiful maidens sensuously poised in the text margins. On the lower folio a male dancer accompanies the female dancers. These scenes are echoed in the textual descriptions of the Kalpasutra celebrating the jina Mahavira. The manuscript displays innovative use of red, blue, and green marginal designs that anticipate sixteenth-century styles and a lavish use of gold script on a red ground. |
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