Shiva and his family / India, Punjab Hills, Kangra School

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Record Details

Accession Number
1942.4
Title
Shiva and his family
Artist Nationality
Indian
Object Creation Date
circa 1790-1800
Object Creation Place
Asia (continent)
India (nation)
Creation Place 1
Asia (continent)
Creation Place 2
India (nation)
Style/Group/Movement
Pahari
Dimensions
19.3 cm x 13.7 cm (7 5/8 in. x 5 3/8 in.)
Century
18th century
Primary Object Classification
Painting
Primary Object Type
album leaf
Secondary Object Classification
Painting
Secondary Object Type
narrative painting
Physical Description
In this idyllic scene, the goddess Parvati offers her husband Shiva a drink, as they enjoy a quiet moment together. Their children, the elephant-headed Ganesha and Skanda, play inside a tent made from the hide of an elephant demon that Shiva had slain. Both parents are clothed in animal skins, the garb of mountain-dwelling ascetics, while Shiva is further adorned with a long necklace of skulls and a snake.
Subject Matter
The narrative and iconographical elements of this scene alludes to multiple aspects of Shiva’s character—as lover, family man, destroyer of evil, and supreme practitioner of austerities—but, as is typical of Kangra painting, the overall mood is one of tranquility and domestic harmony.
Kangra was a small Rajput state in the Punjab Hills, which lie at the foot of the Himalaya in the far north of India. From the mid-eighteenth century, artists in this region began to adapt certain features of European painting, as filtered through Mughal painting. That impact is seen here in the naturalistic palette and treatment of forms, especially the animals and tree.
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Technical Details

Image Size
695 x 985
File Size
74 KB
Record
1942.4
Link to this Item
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1942.4/1942.4.jpg

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https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/api/manifest/musart:1942.4:1942.4.JPG

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"Shiva and his family; India, Punjab Hills, Kangra School." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Art. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1942.4/1942.4.jpg. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed March 29, 2024.
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