Shakuntala (Raja Ravi Varma)

Shakuntala
Artist	Raja Ravi Varma
Year	1870
Medium	Oil on canvas
Subject	Shakuntala and her friends
Location	Kilimanoor

Shakuntala or Shakuntala looking for Dushyanta is an epic painting by celebrated Indian painter, Raja Ravi Varma.

Ravi Varma, depicts Shakuntala, an important character of Mahabharata, pretending to remove a thorn from her foot, while actually looking for her husband/lover, Dushyantha, while her friends call her bluff.

Tapati Guha-Thakurta, an art historian, wrote;

[T]his very gesture – the twist and turn of head and body – draws the viewer into the narrative, inviting one to place this scene within an imagined sequence of images and events. On its own, the painting stands like a frozen tableau (like a still from a moving film), plucked out of an on-running spectacle of episodes. These paintings also reflect the centrality of the "male gaze" in defining the feminine image. Though absent from the pictorial frame, the male lover forms a pivotal point of reference, his gaze transfixes Shakuntala, as also Damayanti, into "desired" images, casting them as lyrical and sensual ideals.[1]

References

Karline McLain (2009). India's Immortal Comic Books: Gods, Kings, and Other Heroes. Indiana University Press. p. 69. ISBN 9780253220523.

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[1] Karline McLain (2009). India's Immortal Comic Books: Gods, Kings, and Other Heroes. Indiana University Press. p. 69. ISBN 9780253220523.