Agni and Vayu

Description Trichinopoly (Southern India) Pigments on mica This rare and meticulously detailed pair of paintings depicts the Vedic gods Agni and Vayu on their respective mounts (vahanas). Agni, the god of fire and guardian of the south-east, is shown riding a powerful ram. His skin is painted the colour of flame, and tongues of fire emanate from his head. Agni is four-faced (with one face turned towards the back) and holds his characteristic iconographical weapons in his four arms. Vayu, the god of air and guardian of the north-west, is depicted seated atop a delicate, prancing antelope. He wears an elaborate crown and abundant jewellery, and carries a pair of fans in his upper hands, while his lower hands are held in the abhayamudra (gesture of reassurance) and varadamudra (gesture of granting boons). Painting on mica (talc) was a novelty that greatly attracted the British in India and was produced specifically for European patrons. While mica painting was practised at Murshidabad, Patna, and Benares in eastern India, it also flourished at Trichinopoly in the south, where mica was mined at Cuddapah. By the second half of the nineteenth century, Trichinopoly artists were producing hundreds of mica paintings depicting gods, rulers, festivals, castes, occupations, birds, flowers, and butterflies for sale to the British. A notable example, Trichinopoly Exports (c. 1850), comprising four volumes of finely painted scenes, was exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851. South Indian mica paintings are distinguished by their use of arsenic green, lemon yellow, and orange-brown, in contrast to the blue-dominated palette of eastern Indian works. E. B. Havell, writing in the late nineteenth century, specifically noted the flourishing mica painting tradition in Madras. Painting Size (cms): 14(H) x 14(W) each Painting Size (inches): 5.5(H) x 5.5(W) each