Kamalika Das
Art Researcher
About the Researcher
A postgraduate student in history at Jadavpur University with a focus on postcolonial South Asian social history, including caste, partition, gender, migration, and displacement. I have a strong interest in subaltern studies and Northeastern history. My aim as a student of the humanities is to approach the discipline from the perspective of those who have been hitherto ignored. When not thinking about history, I am mostly engaged in geopolitics, international relations and public policy.
20th Century • India
Portrait study of Mrs. Gaganendranath Tagore
Research based on 5 sources
20th Century • India
Keechaka and Sairandhri
Research based on 4 sources
20th Century • India
Dwarkapuri
Research based on 7 sources
20th Century • India
Swapanacharani
Research based on 5 sources
20th Century • India
Banyan tree at Jorasankho (Jeevan-smriti)
Research based on 6 sources
20th Century • India
The stupid tiger with the ingredients of pithey
Research based on 4 sources
20th Century • India
Portrait of Dr. A. Coomaraswami
Research based on 5 sources
19th Century • India
The wedding of Krishna
Research based on 4 sources
18th Century • India
Hunting Scene
Research based on 4 sources
18th Century • India
Colonel Polier Watching a Nautch
Research based on 4 sources
18th Century • India
Strange Happenings on a Terrace
Research based on 4 sources
17th Century • India
Raja Anup Singh receives a courtier
Research based on 5 sources
17th Century • India
The Decapitation of Khan Jahan Lodi
Research based on 5 sources
17th Century • India
The Emperor Shah Jahan with his Son Dara Shikoh
Research based on 4 sources
17th Century • India
The camel rider, the snake and the buffalo
Research based on 5 sources
16th Century • India
Congregation of birds
Research based on 3 sources
16th Century • India
The Greedy Dog
Research based on 3 sources
16th Century • India
Hulagu Khan giving a feast and dispensing favor upon the amirs and princes
Research based on 4 sources
16th Century • India
Akbar orders punishment of Adham Khan
Research based on 5 sources
16th Century • India
The Fight between Wazir Khan and Bahadur Khan Against Ali Quli Khan near Chunar
Research based on 4 sources
16th Century • India
Self Portrait of Keshav Das
Research based on 3 sources
Akbar tiger-hunting near Narwar (left half)
Basawan and Sarwan’s Akbar (c. 1590–1595) for the Akbarnama depicts a tense moment from one of Akbar’s hunting expeditions near Narwar. Akbar has just been attacked by a tigress, and here, in this half of the double page, his companions are shown dealing with her…
The Victory of Buddha
The Victory of Buddha by Abanindranath Tagore shows that enlightenment is not a big dramatic moment but a quiet and internal one. Buddha sits serenely against a soft hazy landscape, the gentle washes of colour giving the whole scene a still, almost dreamlike feel. There…
Husband and wife
Husband and Wife, by Lorenzo Lotto, painted around 1543, is a much more personal take on the typical Renaissance marriage portrait. Huddled close together, the couple are almost sheltered from the storm visible through the window behind them. The husband looks directly at us holding…
In the evening
In the Evening (c. 1910), by Abram Arkhipov, depicts a small group of peasant women by the water as the light begins to fade at the end of the day. There is nothing dramatic going on, and that is what makes the picture so attractive.…
Akbar punishes Hamid Bakari
Miskina and Sarwan's painted Akbar and Hamid Bakari for the Akbarnama sometime between 1590 and 1595, and it manages to squeeze two completely different moments into one crowded scene. What you see is Akbar presiding over a big qamargha hunt, hunters and animals and attendants…
Saru Taqi, a Safavid courtier
Bishandas painted Saru Taqi, a Safavid courtier, around 1618, and it’s a quiet portrait, but there’s something about the way this guy carries himself that really draws you in. He stands against a plain background, almost alone, in this ornate robe with a long dagger…
The Fall of the Giants
Girolamo Fagiuoli's Fall of the Giants, after Perino del Vaga, depicts the dramatic moment when Jupiter strikes the rebellious giants with his lightning. What's so striking about the scene is the way everything seems to be falling at once. The Giants tumble in the air,…
Patna Three Figures
This one was made in 1957, just when Binode Behari Mukherjee’s sight was basically going, and honestly that fact kind of colours the whole way I read it. Three figures, watercolour, no sharp or fussy about them. He's not going for exact likeness here, he's…
Allegory of Good Government
Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Allegory of Good Government seems less like a distant political statement and more like a reminder of what a city needs to work well. At the center is a calm and powerful figure of Good Government, surrounded by figures of virtues such as…
Bengali Advertisement of Keshranjan Hair Oil
Annada Munshi’s art captures something that’s easy to miss in everyday Bengali life and makes it memorable. Munshi’s work is not about the grandeur that traditional painting is usually associated with. It is about the world of ordinary people, familiar surroundings and the visual culture…
Peasant girl feeding a duck
Cristiano Banti’s Peasant Girl Feeding a Duck (1871) has a certain charm that lies in its very lack of activity. Outside there is only a young peasant girl, engaged in the small, unnoticeable work of feeding a duck. And maybe that's the point. It's the…
Gustavus Hamilton (1710–1746), Second Viscount Boyne, in Masquerade Costume
It is not simply a young aristocrat dressed up for the Venetian Carnival, Rosalba Carriera’s Gustavus Hamilton, Second Viscount Boyne, in Masquerade Costume (1730–31). Hamilton sports the traditional bautta, complete with black hat, white mask, veil and short cape, instantly giving him an air of…
The Monkey Leader Angada Steals Ravana's Crown from His Fortress
Manaku’s painting brings to life one of the most exciting moments in the Ramayana when Angada boldly enters the fortress of Ravana and steals his crown. What’s even more interesting about the picture is the sense of movement that runs through the entire scene. Angada…
Shrovetide
Boris Kustodiev's Shrovetide (1916) looks like a memory of winter turned into a festival. The snow-covered landscape is filled with people, colourful clothes, horses and sleighs and all this gives the feeling that the whole town has come alive for the festival. Kustodiev uses bright,…
The Talisman
Painted in 1888 at Pont Aven, Paul Sérusier’s The Talisman (above) looks at first glance like a simple landscape, but its strange colours and simplified forms give it an almost dreamlike quality. Sérusier does not try to reproduce nature as it is seen by the…
Parisian rag pickers
In Vasily Perov’s Parisian Rag Pickers (1864) two figures are shown on the margins of Parisian society, involved in the quiet and difficult work of collecting discarded material. In the foreground an older man sits with a tired, weather-beaten face, behind him a woman sits…
Qasam al-Abbas Arrives from Mecca and Crushes Tahmasp with a Mace
Mahesha’s “Qasam al Abbas Arrives from Mecca and Crushes Tahmasp with a Mace,” painted for Akbar’s Hamzanama, for example, shows a battle scene crowded with the excitement and confusion of a fight, as if it were taking place in front of us. On the right…
Four Portraits: (lower right) Jamal Khan Qaravu
A good example of how Mughal portraiture could turn a single page into a kind of small gallery of individuals is Four Portraits, from the Shah Jahan Album. The folio, ca. 1610–15, is a combination of four figures: a raja, probably Raja Sarang Rao, with…
The Calling of St. Matthew
On the canvas of Caravaggio’s The Calling of Saint Matthew, painted at some point between 1599 and 1600, a moment is captured that appears almost too mundane for something so fundamental to Christian belief. At the far end of a room a group of men…
Madhumadhavi Ragini
Madhumadhavi Ragini by Sotheby’s, 1605–06 A Mughal Ragamala miniature painted in gouache with gold on paper. At first sight the painting seems to be of a woman moving through a quiet dark landscape, but there is a strong feeling to the scene. The woman seems…
Portrait of a Young Woman
Lorenzo di Credi’s Portrait of a Young Woman can be interpreted as a thoughtful exploration of female identity, virtue and individuality in Renaissance Florence. The young woman is turned toward the viewer, establishing a more direct and personal contact, as opposed to the stiff profile…
Mines exploding during the siege of Chittor
Miskina’s A Mine Explodes During the Siege of Chittor can be read as more than a record of Mughal military victory. The painting’s composition is crowded and energetic, which conveys the uncertainty, violence and human cost of warfare. The exploding mine becomes the dramatic center…
A Merchant From Surat
Pestonji Bomanji’s A Merchant from Surat shows off his mastery of academic realism, but also offers an insight into the social world of nineteenth-century India. The merchant is shown in a serene and stately manner, and his expression and stance impart an air of confidence…
Fishermen's Evening Song
The simplicity depicted by the painter has been beautifully captured in the passage given. The artist's attempt to capture the ordinary instances of the daily lives of the fishermen returning from work, returning to their domestic sphere, reflects the beauty of the everyday lives of…
Portrait of Jahangir Beg, Jansipar Khan, Folio from the Shah Jahan Album
Balchand’s Portrait of Jahangir Beg, Jansipar Khan can be read as a study of identity, status, and self-representation within the Mughal court. The painting does not merely document the physical appearance of its subject. Thru posture, expression, clothing and controlled gestures Balchand creates an image…
The Harvest
The Harvest was painted in 1909 and is an example of Herrán’s early work, when he was completing his training at Mexico’s National School of Fine Arts. The work bears the influence of his teacher, Germán Gedovius, and especially his focus on colour and composition.…
Portrait of children (Ritratto di bambini or Tra i fiori)
The artwork is a classic example of "scapigliatura", an artistic movement that emerged in Milan and Lombardy, Italy, between 1860 and 1870. The movement, unlike conventional portraits, is characterised by loose brushwork, broken contours, undefined-looking surfaces and revolves around everyday scenes. The movement was popular…