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Lot Essay
The figure of the swan or hansa has deep significance in Hindu mythology. Considered highly intelligent, it is the vahana or mount of the creator god Brahma. Swans are also closely associated with Brahma’s consort Saraswati, goddess of wisdom and learning. Additionally, swans are often said to be messengers of love. In the epic Mahabharata, King Nala sends a swan to sing his praises to the princess Damayanti, leading to their eventual marriage. This scene was famously depicted by Raja Ravi Varma, who painted the swan as Damayanti’s confidante.
In ancient Pali and Sanskrit texts, and early Buddhist depictions of the jataka tales, hansa refers to a bird that is the epitome of grace and elegance. First understood to be a goose, and then later described in Sanskrit literature and the writings of Kalidasa as a swan, depictions of the hansa are always aesthetically pleasing, with its long, slender neck and shapely body.
The jataka tales are a group of stories about the Buddha’s past lives, which impart lessons of wisdom and morality. In the Hansa Jataka, which Keyt masterfully illustrates in the present lot, the Buddha was born in the form of a golden goose, the leader of a flock of ninety thousand birds. The story begins with the dream of the Queen of Varanasi, Kshema. In the dream, Kshema was visited by a resplendent golden goose who preached to her the teachings of the Buddha and the path to enlightenment. Enamored by the beauty of the bird, she convinced her husband the King, to find and capture it for her. The King succeeded in capturing the bodhisattva’s entire flock, and in a heroic display of leadership, the bodhisattva exchanged himself for the safety of his subjects. In captivity, he spoke the teachings of the Buddha to the King and Queen, who as a result, found the path to enlightenment and freed him.
The present lot focuses on a small scene from this story, which Keyt famously depicted in a monumental mural he painted in 1952. Perhaps a study for one part of this mural, which depicts significantly more characters, this painting on jute portraying the veneration of the bodhisattva as the golden goose concentrates on the main characters of the tale: Kshema the Queen, the King, and the bodhisattva in the form of a golden hansa.
Eschewing frivolous details, Keyt reveals the essence of the scene in this masterful painting. As illustrated in Untitled (Hansa Jataka), Keyt “remains the most outstanding exemplar in Sri Lanka of a truly modern pictorial style, which retains a specifically Asian expression, scorning synthetic folklore, enfeebling tradition, cramping academicism, and cloying provincialism, as well as the more outlandish excesses of the contemporary school of European paintings” (H.A.I. Goonetileke, George Keyt, A Life in Art, Colombo, 1989, p. 16).
In ancient Pali and Sanskrit texts, and early Buddhist depictions of the jataka tales, hansa refers to a bird that is the epitome of grace and elegance. First understood to be a goose, and then later described in Sanskrit literature and the writings of Kalidasa as a swan, depictions of the hansa are always aesthetically pleasing, with its long, slender neck and shapely body.
The jataka tales are a group of stories about the Buddha’s past lives, which impart lessons of wisdom and morality. In the Hansa Jataka, which Keyt masterfully illustrates in the present lot, the Buddha was born in the form of a golden goose, the leader of a flock of ninety thousand birds. The story begins with the dream of the Queen of Varanasi, Kshema. In the dream, Kshema was visited by a resplendent golden goose who preached to her the teachings of the Buddha and the path to enlightenment. Enamored by the beauty of the bird, she convinced her husband the King, to find and capture it for her. The King succeeded in capturing the bodhisattva’s entire flock, and in a heroic display of leadership, the bodhisattva exchanged himself for the safety of his subjects. In captivity, he spoke the teachings of the Buddha to the King and Queen, who as a result, found the path to enlightenment and freed him.
The present lot focuses on a small scene from this story, which Keyt famously depicted in a monumental mural he painted in 1952. Perhaps a study for one part of this mural, which depicts significantly more characters, this painting on jute portraying the veneration of the bodhisattva as the golden goose concentrates on the main characters of the tale: Kshema the Queen, the King, and the bodhisattva in the form of a golden hansa.
Eschewing frivolous details, Keyt reveals the essence of the scene in this masterful painting. As illustrated in Untitled (Hansa Jataka), Keyt “remains the most outstanding exemplar in Sri Lanka of a truly modern pictorial style, which retains a specifically Asian expression, scorning synthetic folklore, enfeebling tradition, cramping academicism, and cloying provincialism, as well as the more outlandish excesses of the contemporary school of European paintings” (H.A.I. Goonetileke, George Keyt, A Life in Art, Colombo, 1989, p. 16).