Saraswati, Goddess of Learning and Music
A seminal work in the artist’s early suite of pictures devoted to Brahmanic subjects, Saraswati represents Srimati’s “patron saint” in her pursuit of all the fine arts. The goddess is shown as a beautiful, youthful woman seated on the open petals of a lotus and playing a vina. In her raised hand she holds a rosary (mala) and in the lower hand a book in the traditional palm-leaf format (pustaka), invoking wisdom and knowledge. The background of billowing clouds became a signature motif of many of Srimati’s later figure studies. The painting, a majestic rendering of a perennial subject in Indian art, was exhibited in Srimati’s 1952 and 1955 Indian solo exhibitions. It appears in several studio photographs of the period as the centerpiece of the artist’s household shrine in the family’s Chennai residence, where Saraswati Puja was celebrated.
Artwork Details
- Title: Saraswati, Goddess of Learning and Music
- Artist: Y. G. Srimati (Indian, 1926–2007)
- Date: 1947–48
- Culture: India (Chennai)
- Medium: Watercolor on paper
- Dimensions: Image: 20 x 13 1/4 in. (50.8 x 33.7 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Purchase, Friends of Asian Art Gifts, 2009
- Object Number: 2009.102
- Rights and Reproduction: © 2009 M. Pellettieri
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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Y. G. Srimati
ca. 1945–46
Returned to lender
Y. G. Srimati
ca. 1950
Y. G. Srimati
early 1940s
Returned to lender
Y. G. Srimati
early 1940s
Returned to lender
Y. G. Srimati
1961
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