Garlanded with skulls, wreathed in snakes and with a multi-headed serpent in his hair, Śiva turns tenderly towards Pārvatī. They sit against a bolster of exquisite crimson and gold stuff, set before a dark night tinged only with the faintest gilding of the clouds. Śiva as the defeater of the elephant-demon wears its skin wrapped around his loins - the eyes and ears of the flayed animal are seen at the base of the skull-garland. The two deities are shown on the skin of a tiger, the seat of ascetics. The river Ganges flows through the hair of Śiva and cascades down beside them, past the diminutive figure of the bull mount of the god, Nandi. Painted on paper in bodycolour and gold inlaid with pieces of iridescent beetle carapace.

Shiva is one of the principal deities of Hinduism and the supreme god in the tradition of Shaivism. Worshipped throughout India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and parts of Southeast Asia, he is an amalgamation of various older deities into a single figure. Alongside Brahma and Vishnu, Shiva forms part of the Trimurti, in which he is known as the “destroyer”, although in many traditions he also creates, preserves and transforms the universe. He is depicted as both an ascetic yogi and as a householder with his consort Parvati and his sons Ganesha and Kartikeya. Shiva’s iconography includes the trishula (trident), the third eye, the damaru, the serpent king Vasuki, the crescent moon, and the river Ganga flowing from his hair. Usually worshipped in the form of the lingam, Shiva is regarded as the patron of meditation, yoga and the arts. This painting depicts Shiva and Parvati seated together on a terrace at night, with iconographic elements including skulls, snakes, and the Ganga flowing through his hair. The work was painted around 1800 on paper in bodycolour and gold, inlaid with pieces of iridescent beetle carapace, and is now in the collection of the British Museum in London.

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