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Lot Essay
Over the years, as Jamini Roy’s visual vocabulary evolved, his subject matter began to borrow equally from indigenous Bengal art traditions, narrative epics like the Ramayana, European art and the Christian imagery of Byzantine murals. His innovative rendering of images of Hindu Gods and Christian saints were lauded for their bridging of European and Indian aesthetics, at a time when artists were seeking new forms of expression to break free of colonial constraints and reconnect with their cultural roots. While Roy’s experiments with European academic styles and Indian folk idioms have been widely analyzed in scholarship, far less studied are his reimaginations of artistic traditions from within Asia, such as the present lot, a large and exceptionally rare painting, likely inspired by a traditional Buddhist fresco or thangka.
Here, Roy paints the figure of the historical Buddha, or Shakyamuni, seated in padmasana or the lotus position on a lotus base. With his eyes closed, hands placed in his lap in dhyana mudra, a gesture of meditation, and legs folded, the figure radiates an aura of serenity and stability. In various artistic traditions and forms, this particular depiction of the Shakyamuni, dressed in the robes of a monk with a bowl to receive alms, commonly indicates the moment just before he receives enlightenment. While Roy borrows from various sources, including depictions of Amitabha Buddha from Mahayana traditions, he is particular to represent his subject’s deep meditative practice through the halo and aureole around his head and body, and to also include other conventional physical attributes of the figure such as his elongated earlobes, the urna on his forehead and his ushnisha or cranial protrusion.
While the upper section of the painting is textured to resemble an ancient mural or fresco, the lower part contains a mountainous landscape, with diminutive temple structures emerging from a bank of swirling clouds recalling Amitabha’s heavenly abode portrayed in many thangka paintings. Through his study of these forms of Buddhist paintings, and by borrowing from them in his own work, Roy seems to insert himself within the discourse of Pan-Asianism that had begun to circulate among artists of the Bengal School, such as Rabindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose, in the 1920s. Rejecting European influences, artists from across Asia began to draw from artistic and cultural traditions within the continent to present a united front against imperial constraints. The present lot by Roy is a significant contribution to the history of Pan-Asianism in its unique blending of Bengali folk styles with Buddhist imagery from various sources.
Here, Roy paints the figure of the historical Buddha, or Shakyamuni, seated in padmasana or the lotus position on a lotus base. With his eyes closed, hands placed in his lap in dhyana mudra, a gesture of meditation, and legs folded, the figure radiates an aura of serenity and stability. In various artistic traditions and forms, this particular depiction of the Shakyamuni, dressed in the robes of a monk with a bowl to receive alms, commonly indicates the moment just before he receives enlightenment. While Roy borrows from various sources, including depictions of Amitabha Buddha from Mahayana traditions, he is particular to represent his subject’s deep meditative practice through the halo and aureole around his head and body, and to also include other conventional physical attributes of the figure such as his elongated earlobes, the urna on his forehead and his ushnisha or cranial protrusion.
While the upper section of the painting is textured to resemble an ancient mural or fresco, the lower part contains a mountainous landscape, with diminutive temple structures emerging from a bank of swirling clouds recalling Amitabha’s heavenly abode portrayed in many thangka paintings. Through his study of these forms of Buddhist paintings, and by borrowing from them in his own work, Roy seems to insert himself within the discourse of Pan-Asianism that had begun to circulate among artists of the Bengal School, such as Rabindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose, in the 1920s. Rejecting European influences, artists from across Asia began to draw from artistic and cultural traditions within the continent to present a united front against imperial constraints. The present lot by Roy is a significant contribution to the history of Pan-Asianism in its unique blending of Bengali folk styles with Buddhist imagery from various sources.