拍品專文
The present album, most probably compiled by an Englishman, contains unusually highly coloured studies of Hindu deities, watercolours of Hindu men and women and of composite animals.
The remarkably imaginative draftsmanship of composite animals can be traced back to Shang China (?1523-1027 B.C.) and to Islamic 12th-century stone sculptures from Seljuk Anatolia. There are many prototypes for such composite beasts containing dancing girls, but the significance is not clear. The whole concept is highly decorative but it has also been suggested that the idea may represent a visualization of earth spirits (see S. Cary Welch, Indian Drawings and Painted Sketches, London, 1876, p. 42).
A Tanjore School album of circa 1800, in the India Office Library contains a similar watercolour of Kama the god of love, mounted on a horse composed of five women. (M. Archer, Company Drawings in the India Office Library, London, 1972, no. 9x).
The remarkably imaginative draftsmanship of composite animals can be traced back to Shang China (?1523-1027 B.C.) and to Islamic 12th-century stone sculptures from Seljuk Anatolia. There are many prototypes for such composite beasts containing dancing girls, but the significance is not clear. The whole concept is highly decorative but it has also been suggested that the idea may represent a visualization of earth spirits (see S. Cary Welch, Indian Drawings and Painted Sketches, London, 1876, p. 42).
A Tanjore School album of circa 1800, in the India Office Library contains a similar watercolour of Kama the god of love, mounted on a horse composed of five women. (M. Archer, Company Drawings in the India Office Library, London, 1972, no. 9x).