A RARE ORISSAN PAINTING OF VISHNU AS VISHVARUPA, EASTERN INDIA, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

A RARE ORISSAN PAINTING OF VISHNU AS VISHVARUPA, EASTERN INDIA, EARLY 19TH CENTURY pigment on cloth, the four-armed hindu deity seated in padmasana within a cusped arch under a tiered dome , wearing a blue dhoti, multiple necklaces and a floral garland holding a gada in each of his primary hands and sankha and cakra in his upper hands, wearing an elaborate bejewelled crown with six protruding cobra heads, framed, 60 x 42cm Provenance: Property of a deceased estate, London. Acquired Ciancimino Ltd., London, 14th January 1974 Vishvarupa, 'all encompassing', is the cosmic form of a Hindu deity, an epithet most commonly associated with Vishnu as related in the Bhagavadgita, when he appeared in this form to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. This painting with its very distinctive treatment of the deity's fingers and attributes, as well as the style of the arched shrine which frames the composition, bears a striking resemblance to the murals which decorate the Virinci Narayana Temple at Buguda, built by the local ruler, Srikara Bhanja, in the 1820s. Stylistic similarities with a panel depicting Narasimha with Hiranyakasipu are particularly notable (see Williams, pl.14, p.176 and pp.244-246. There are also interesting parallels with Nepalese painting, as illustrated by comparison of this painting with two paintings from Bhaktapur in American museums: one depicting Vishnu date d 1681 in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.73.2.2) and another, probably from the 18th century in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2000-7-2).