A PAUBHA OF SHIVA ENSHRINED


NEPAL, EARLY-MID 18TH CENTURYDistemper on cloth.
Himalayan Art Resources item no.61960 28 1/2 x 22 1/4 in. (72.4 x 56.5 cm)
|尼泊爾 十八世紀早中期 濕婆博巴 This painting depicts Shiva seated above adoring Nandis at the center of a shrine. Stylistic similarities are found among the facial types and treatment of surrounding figures in a paubha of Vishnu, dated 1716 CE, formerly in the Jucker Collection (Kreijer, Kathmandu Valley Painting, Boston, 1999, p.63, no.18). Also notable is the distinctive treatment of supporting pillars and white balustrades shared in both paintings, indicating an early-mid-18th-century date for the present lot as well. Also compare a closely related paubha depicting Saiva shrines in Pal, Art of Nepal,, Los Angeles, 1985, p.74, no.P30. About their common architecture, Pal notes, "Rising in three tiers, the central shrine is a copy of a temple design popular in the Kathmandu valley during the seventeenth century". Provenance English Private Collection, 1997 Christie's, New York, 12 September 2012, lot 563