INDIA, RAJATHAN, NATHDWARA, LATE 18TH-EARLY 19TH CENTURY

The present painting depicts two priests performing aarti on the day of sapt svarup ka annakut utsav, a festival in which the seven additional Pushtimarg images are brought to the haveli of Shrinathji for an elaborate feast. A silk brocade pichvai with a tree of life motif, made for the first celebration in 1741, is on display for the occasion. Compare the present painting to a similar scene represented on a pichvai in the TAPI collection (acc. no. T.99.556) published in M. Ghose, Gates of the Lord: The Tradition of Krishna Paintings, Chicago, 2015, p. 124, no. 58, in which the same brocade pichvai on display.