

An edition of The Body Adorned (2009)
Sacred and Profane in Indian Art
By Vidya Dehejia
Publish Date
February 23, 2009
Publisher
Columbia University Press
Language
eng
Pages
229
Description:
"Delight in Design is a richly Illustrated volume that focuses on the remarkable ornamented silverware produced by Indian craftsmen during the period of the British Raj. Silversmiths created elegant silver tea services, bowls, wine and water ewers, beer mugs, and goblets to adorn the sideboard or mantelpiece in a British Raj home, producing European forms fulfilling European requirements. These same silversmiths then adopted a unique manner of embellishing these objects with a variety of different motifs that reflected local taste and carried a recognizably local pattern. A tea service made in Kutch would feature heavily embossed work, perhaps with a wonderful twisted snake as its handle, and a magnificent elephant head where its spout emerged from the pot. If made in Madras, the teapot would be decorated with images of gods being carried in temple processions to the accompaniment of music and dance, giving this ware the designation of Swami (god) silver. If from Calcutta, it would bear a series of rural scenes - men and women carrying water, husking grain, or ploughing fields, against a backdrop of palm trees and village huts."--Jacket.
subjects: Indic Arts, Human figure in art, Beauty, Personal, in literature, Symbolic aspects of the Human body, Human body in literature, Symbolic aspects, Symbolic aspects of Human body, Human Body, Body, Human, in literature, Beauty, Personal, in art, Körper <Motiv>, Skönhetsideal i litteraturen, Människokroppen i litteraturen, Körper, Människokroppen i konsten, Skönhetsideal i konsten, Kunst, Indisk konst, 20.41 Asian art: general, Painting, indic, Beauty, personal, Art, indic, Silverwork, Exhibitions, History, Colonial Silverwork, Decorative arts, Foreign influences, Silverware