Shri Shankara Shiva

This magnificent rendering of Shiva’s divine family is one of the earliest and most popular prints of Chitrashala Press, based in Pune, western India. The youthful and handsome faces of Shiva and his wife Parvati gaze directly at the viewer, engaging the devotee in the act of darshan, ‘seeing the Divine’. The holy family, richly dressed and adorned, seated on a throne with a cusped back and sides featuring carved lions with heavy manes. Shiva embraces both Parvati and their second son Ganesha with his lower arms, while holding aloft his trident (trisula) and ax in his upper hands. Shiva’s calf-bull Vrsabha (popularly known as Nandi, ‘the joyful’) sits couchant facing his Lord, wearing a splendid blanket of green velvet with golden floral medallion border, a golden harness and chain of bells around his neck. This scene has the staged feel of a photographic studio composition, with the snowy peaks of the Himalayas as the painted backdrop. Undoubtedly the artist was directly drawing on such staged theatrics in this composition.