Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Indian Paintings from the Simon Digby Collection

(from 1st Oct 2013 until 5th Jan 2014)

Explore the recent acquisition of a rich and unusual collection of Indian paintings and manuscript pages.

Detail of Noblemen in durbar, Rajasthan, 18th century (Museum no: EA2012.225)
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A lady by a mango tree

  • Description

    In this unusual composition, perhaps illustrating an unidentified poetic subject, a noble lady stands beneath a fruit-laden mango tree. Her maids and the carriage driver wait nearby. Her carriage is drawn by a pair of docile nilgai or bluebuck, a type of Indian antelope. The lady gazes abstractedly, perhaps feeling the absence of her lover, and she is approached by a pair of sarus cranes, proverbial in India for their conjugal fidelity. Meanwhile she reaches up to grasp a branch of the tree, recalling early Indian sculptural images of the shalabhanjika, the tree nymph or nature goddess who seizes a branch to awaken the tree and ensure its fertility.

  • Details

    Associated place
    AsiaIndiawest IndiaRajasthan Bikaner (place of creation)
    Date
    c. 1700
    Material and technique
    gouache with gold on paper
    Dimensions
    18.4 x 23.9 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Presented by the Simon Digby Memorial Charity, 2012.
    Accession no.
    EA2012.232

Past Exhibition

see (1)

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Notice

Objects from past exhibitions may have now returned to our stores or a lender. Click into an individual object record to confirm whether or not an object is currently on display. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis, so please contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular Eastern Art object.

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