Unknown Thanjavur painter
Navaneeta Krishna
The child Krishna enthroned in raised gold.
- Artist
- Unknown Thanjavur painter
- Date
- Second half of the 19th century
- Medium
- Paint, gold leaf and gesso on cloth over wood
- Where it is
- National Museum, New Delhi (62.490)
- Kind
- Tanjore painting
A plump child Krishna reclines on a green cushion under a gold arch, hung with jewels and flower garlands. Attendants stand at either side and winged figures fly in the upper corners. Almost every architectural line, from pillars to the crown, stands up from the surface in raised and gilded relief.
This is how Thanjavur paintings were made. Cloth was pasted on a wooden board and coated with chalk or limestone paste; the outline was drawn or traced; then the raised parts were built up with a paste of lime and gum, covered in gold leaf, and set with glass or stones. Colour came last.
The form took shape at the Maratha court of Thanjavur, and the paintings were made as devotional icons. The faces are round, the eyes almond-shaped, the composition still. This one is in the National Museum in New Delhi.