29th Oct, 2021 14:00
AN EROTIC SCENE: TWO LOVERS AND A MAN MILKING A COW
Dathya, Madhya Pradesh, India, late 18th - early 19th century
Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the vertical composition depicting an unusual erotic scene featuring a Rajput courtly couple making love resting against the back of a blind-folded man milking a cow attending its calf, the animals occupying the largest portion of the foreground composition, the nobleman and the courtesan heavily bejewelled and dressed in courtly garb, the blind-folded milker dressed as a villager but his gold bracelets and strings of pearls around the neck and chest suggesting a close contact with generous courtly subjects, in the background typical North Indian architectural pavilions, the one on the right with a bed further emphasising the act of lovemaking, at the top a rectangular cartouche with three lines of Devanagari script against an ochre background, set within black rules, and ochre and bright red borders, to the upper right corner an Indian numeral (77), mounted on a light blue cardboard frame, the folio 28.5cm x 19.1cm.
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