.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This painting depicts the Holy Family’s celebrated descent from their celestial abode on Mount Kailasha to the fertile alluvial plains. Shiva strides forward at the head of the procession, his golden hair catching the light as he is wrapped in a tiger-skin shawl and leopard-skin skirt. A pink satchel is tucked into the crook of his arm. Nestled closely against his shoulder is his son Karttikeya, rendered with pink flesh and multiple heads, his body pressed protectively into that of his father. Behind them advances the alert and animated Nandi, draped in a leopard skin and a multi-colored patchwork quilt, bearing upon his back Parvati and her younger son, the diminutive, red-hued, elephant-headed Ganesha. The descent of the Holy Family was a subject prized in Pahari painting for its combination of sacred narrative and intimate familial exchange, all set within a dramatic landscape.
The landscape plays a central narrative role. Jagged, glacial mountain crags rise sharply behind the figures before softening into tinted green hills, visually charting the family’s passage from the austere heights of Kailasha toward the gentler, inhabited plains. This gradual modulation of terrain underscores both the physical demands of the journey and its symbolic transition from the divine realm to the world of humankind. The present work shares its distinctive treatment of abstracted, glacial mountain forms with a related depiction of Shiva and Parvati on Mount Kailasha sold at Sotheby’s, New York, 17 June 1993, lot 196.
Scenes of the Holy Family’s descent from Mount Kailasha were a favored theme in Pahari painting, valued for their ability to balance sublime landscape with tender domestic moments. Artists explored this narrative through varied episodes, including the precarious passage down steep mountain paths (Sotheby’s, New York, 16 March 2016, lot 851), pauses of repose beneath a tree (Sotheby’s, New York, 17 March 2015, lot 1174; Bonhams, London, 24 April 2018, lot 321), and Nandi drinking from a small pool of water (Harvard Art Museums, 2007.267).
This specific compositional arrangement appears to be a repeated one within the various styles of Pahari paintings. Shiva's guiding stride, his dangling pink satchel, his supporting shoulder for his son, the mid-motion Nandi carrying Parvati with Ganesha in her lap appear on two other paintings: a Kulu example from circa 1700-29 (Sotheby's, New York, 20 September 2021, lot 390) and a Mandi example from circa 1770 (W.G. Archer, Visions of Courtly India: The Archer Collection of Pahari Miniatures, 1976, p. 112, no. 60). All are animated by a subtle choreography of glances with Shiva turning back toward Nandi as he prances forward. Nandi’s presence is deliberately exaggerated; he stretches across the foreground, commanding the pictorial space and anchoring the composition. In this example, his andromorphic eyes appear to register Shiva’s backward gaze, conveying an awareness of, and responsibility for, the sacred burden he carries across the treacherous terrain.
The rendering of details and overall palette follow more closely in the style of Sajnu, who worked at the court in Mandi. An episode from the same narrative, painted in the style of Sajnu, shares a similar lightly washed palette in the background, renders the leopard skin as open circles of black ink, and suggests an intimacy shared between the figures (Victoria and Albert Museum, IS.4648 c). This painting, though, shows a softening of the profiles, a more life-like representation of Nandi, and more craggy-edged rock faces, all which follow Sajnu's notable techniques. Several paintings attributed to Sajnu share these elements: the angular treatment of rocks in the depiction of Hamir and the Dancing Girl, the softened profiles in the Month of Pus, and the endearing characterization of the bull in Raja Isvari Sen Worship of Shiva (see W. Archer, Indian Paintings of the Punjab Hills, 1974, pp. 273-275, nos. 42 (ii), 43-46). These correlations to Sajnu highlight the intimacy, sense of movement, and sensitivity to the natural world that define these lyrical narratives of the Pahari painting tradition.
The landscape plays a central narrative role. Jagged, glacial mountain crags rise sharply behind the figures before softening into tinted green hills, visually charting the family’s passage from the austere heights of Kailasha toward the gentler, inhabited plains. This gradual modulation of terrain underscores both the physical demands of the journey and its symbolic transition from the divine realm to the world of humankind. The present work shares its distinctive treatment of abstracted, glacial mountain forms with a related depiction of Shiva and Parvati on Mount Kailasha sold at Sotheby’s, New York, 17 June 1993, lot 196.
Scenes of the Holy Family’s descent from Mount Kailasha were a favored theme in Pahari painting, valued for their ability to balance sublime landscape with tender domestic moments. Artists explored this narrative through varied episodes, including the precarious passage down steep mountain paths (Sotheby’s, New York, 16 March 2016, lot 851), pauses of repose beneath a tree (Sotheby’s, New York, 17 March 2015, lot 1174; Bonhams, London, 24 April 2018, lot 321), and Nandi drinking from a small pool of water (Harvard Art Museums, 2007.267).
This specific compositional arrangement appears to be a repeated one within the various styles of Pahari paintings. Shiva's guiding stride, his dangling pink satchel, his supporting shoulder for his son, the mid-motion Nandi carrying Parvati with Ganesha in her lap appear on two other paintings: a Kulu example from circa 1700-29 (Sotheby's, New York, 20 September 2021, lot 390) and a Mandi example from circa 1770 (W.G. Archer, Visions of Courtly India: The Archer Collection of Pahari Miniatures, 1976, p. 112, no. 60). All are animated by a subtle choreography of glances with Shiva turning back toward Nandi as he prances forward. Nandi’s presence is deliberately exaggerated; he stretches across the foreground, commanding the pictorial space and anchoring the composition. In this example, his andromorphic eyes appear to register Shiva’s backward gaze, conveying an awareness of, and responsibility for, the sacred burden he carries across the treacherous terrain.
The rendering of details and overall palette follow more closely in the style of Sajnu, who worked at the court in Mandi. An episode from the same narrative, painted in the style of Sajnu, shares a similar lightly washed palette in the background, renders the leopard skin as open circles of black ink, and suggests an intimacy shared between the figures (Victoria and Albert Museum, IS.4648 c). This painting, though, shows a softening of the profiles, a more life-like representation of Nandi, and more craggy-edged rock faces, all which follow Sajnu's notable techniques. Several paintings attributed to Sajnu share these elements: the angular treatment of rocks in the depiction of Hamir and the Dancing Girl, the softened profiles in the Month of Pus, and the endearing characterization of the bull in Raja Isvari Sen Worship of Shiva (see W. Archer, Indian Paintings of the Punjab Hills, 1974, pp. 273-275, nos. 42 (ii), 43-46). These correlations to Sajnu highlight the intimacy, sense of movement, and sensitivity to the natural world that define these lyrical narratives of the Pahari painting tradition.