A silk lampas fragment depicting Krishna playing the flute, India, Assam, late 18th-early...

A silk lampas fragment depicting Krishna playing the flute, India, Assam, late 18th-early 19th century, of rectangular form, the naturalistic scene depicted in a refined palette of shades of blue, white and yellow on a red ground, on stretcher, fragment 38 x 22cm.

Provenance: Spink & Son, London

Two scenes are depicted: Krishna playing the flute in characteristic pose to the left, and Krishna carrying off a gopi in his arms to the right, in both cases surrounded by adoring gopis in attitudes of worship and dance. The two scenes are separated and framed by trees with slender sinusoidal trunks bearing flowers (open corollas or calyces in profile and accompanied respectively by lancet-shaped and heart-shaped leaves). Krishna has blue skin and wears a five-pointed crown, and a long flowing shawl and garlands. The textile has a scrolling floral meander to the bottom.

A charming silk lampas fragment depicting scenes from the life of Krishna in a floral, naturalistic and preciously elegant style. The refined palette of colours intertwines shades of white, yellow and blue on a scarlet red ground. Two scenes are depicted: Krishna playing the flute in characteristic pose to the left, and Krishna carrying off a gopi in his arms to the right, in both cases surrounded by adoring gopis in attitudes of worship and dance. The two scenes are separated and framed by trees with slender sinusoidal trunks bearing flowers (open corollas or calyces in profile and accompanied respectively by lancet-shaped and heart-shaped leaves). Krishna has blue skin and wears a five-pointed crown, and a long flowing shawl and garlands. The textile has a scrolling floral meander to the bottom.

Almost identical fragments are in the A.E.D.T.A. collection and published in Riboud et al, Samit & Lampas: Motifs indien, pp. 140-141, from which the above notes were complied.

Riboud dates the textiles to the nineteenth century but a similar group in the exhibition From the Looms of India at the Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia, are dated to the late eighteenth century, and the date is probably somewhere between the two.