Handpainted – Kalamkari – Panchamukhi Ganesha on Crimson

Provenance

'Panchamukhi Ganesha on Crimson' is a Kalamkari painting of Ganesha in his five-headed form, seated beneath an arch on a crimson ground. The five-headed Ganesha is a less common and especially auspicious form, and here it becomes the subject of a dense, richly ornamented image built almost entirely from fine line.

Ganesha sits cross-legged on a lotus throne, his five elephant heads crowned and fanned around a central face, with several arms holding a serpent, a goad, a pot and other attributes, and one hand raised in blessing. His body and garments are covered in fine floral and scale-like patterning. Two small mice sit on a black and white chequered floor at either side, and an arched canopy with floral spandrels rises above.

Crimson, cream, ochre and black make a warm, earthy palette, with a thin line of sky blue running inside the border. The ornament is so fine that the figure reads almost like carved ivory against the red ground. It is a striking, devotional painting for an entrance, a study or a prayer room.