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Lot Essay
The iconography is very close to that of Bhairava Raga as appearing in Klaus Ebeling, Ragamala Painting, Basel, 1973, cat.307, p.275. The three-headed Shiva wears a snake necklace, riding his Brahmin bull, Nandi, and carries in his four hands a rosary, a trident, a beggar’s bowl and a hand drum. He is worshipped by a devotee standing in front of him. The absence of the leopard skin on the present figure is the only noticeable difference.
The figure of the devotee is very close to depictions of Raja Man Dhata of Nurpur, who was a devout Hindu. For his portrait depicting him as a yogi (circa 1690-1700), see D. Diamond, et al., Yoga: The Art of Transformation, Washington DC, 2013, p.167, cat.no.11A.
For two closely related paintings of a single divinity standing against a bright yellow ground, see a depiction of the Goddess Annapurna (L.V. Habighorst, Blumen, Baume, Gottergarten in indischen Miniaturen, pp.116-119, cat.86, and sold at Sotheby’s London, 8 April 1975, lot 166) and a depiction of Brahma riding his crane vehicle in the Howard Hodgkin collection (Andrew Topsfield, ed., Visions of Mughal India: The Collection of Howard Hodgkin, Oxford, 2012, p.128, no.52 and p.18, illus. p.129). Both are attributed to Mankot, circa 1730.
The figure of the devotee is very close to depictions of Raja Man Dhata of Nurpur, who was a devout Hindu. For his portrait depicting him as a yogi (circa 1690-1700), see D. Diamond, et al., Yoga: The Art of Transformation, Washington DC, 2013, p.167, cat.no.11A.
For two closely related paintings of a single divinity standing against a bright yellow ground, see a depiction of the Goddess Annapurna (L.V. Habighorst, Blumen, Baume, Gottergarten in indischen Miniaturen, pp.116-119, cat.86, and sold at Sotheby’s London, 8 April 1975, lot 166) and a depiction of Brahma riding his crane vehicle in the Howard Hodgkin collection (Andrew Topsfield, ed., Visions of Mughal India: The Collection of Howard Hodgkin, Oxford, 2012, p.128, no.52 and p.18, illus. p.129). Both are attributed to Mankot, circa 1730.