Indian beauty with an admiring bird - a photo on Flickriver

            Title: A Beauty at a window with a bird (circa 1675)
From: Deccan, Telangana, Golconda, 
Artist: ? (South Asian, Indian)
Material: Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper, mounted on an album page
Venue: Speed Art Museum, University of Louisville on loan courtesy of The San Diego Museum of Art

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With my photographer's eyes, this rather risqué image from India was about leading lines, which I thought was a Western art thing. It apparently is not. Eyes being eyes, no matter where, leading lines are evident here in this classic Indian art. 

The beguiling complementary colors and the fine detail in the brush strokes are striking. The art museum actually gave me a magnifying glass to better see those fine strokes.

The plaque next to the painting explained the art as what I relate to as sort of a Song of Solomon kind of thing– those poems of sexual desire in the Bible, e.g. "your breasts are like twin fawns of a gazelle...blow on my garden" [Song of Solomon 4: 5 & 16 to name just a few], which are explained away as really about man's relationship with God. The plaque states: 

"This portrait of a beautiful woman sitting at a window with a bird delicately perched on her fingers may allude to the metaphor of the gul u bulbul, or rose and nightingale, stemming from classical Persian literature and adopted by Sufi mystics to reflect the ultimate bond of love with God. Within the conventions of Persianate and Indian mystical poetry, the soul's inexplicable longing for union with God is talked about in the language of earthly love--passionate and illicit..."
   

Some rights reserved

Taken in: United States / Kentucky / Louisville (show map)

Taken on: March 10, 2024

Tags:

Speed Art Museum

art

Indian art

Jefferson County

University of Louisville

Kentucky

Louisville

artwork

United States « less

Sets appears in: • Artsy

Groups appears in: • Classic Art

Camera: Nikon Z 8, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, 62mm, ISO 1600 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon Z 8
Lens:	NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S
Aperture:	f/2.8
Exposure Time:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Focal Length:	62mm
ISO:	1600
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	Low gain up
Saturation:	High
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 13.2 (Macintosh)
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