Unknown
Garuda Flying through the Aircirca 1750-1775

Not on view

Ink and wash drawing on aged cream paper of a mythological bird creature in close-up, with a hooked beak, bead necklace, scrolling crest, spread wing, and talon grasping an ornate decorated staff

Ink and wash drawing on paper depicting a mythical bird creature with an eagle-like head, feathered wings, and pearl necklace, holding an ornate staff with a flame finial; fine linework with pale gold and gray wash accents

Artist or Maker: Unknown
Title: Garuda Flying through the Air
Place Made: India, Rajasthan, Bundi
Date Made: circa 1750-1775
Medium: Ink and opaque watercolor on paper
Dimensions: 24 1/4 x 27 3/8 in. (61.59 x 69.53 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Paul F. Walter
Accession Number: M.79.191.24
Classification: Drawings
Collecting Area: South and Southeast Asian Art
Curatorial Notes: The sunbird Garuda is the half-avian, half-human mount (vahana) of Vishnu, the Hindu God of Preservation. Here, Vishnu is depicted symbolically. Rather than portraying Vishnu astride the flying Garuda, as in the contemporaneous M.77.154.12, Garuda is instead alone and carrying two of Vishnu’s principal attributes, the conch (shankha) in his left hand and the mace (gada) in his right hand. He wears a long billowing scarf (angavastra) that trails around his neck and down to his thigh. Garuda is richly ornamented with a triple earring, necklace, armlets, anklets, and palm cuffs or "hand flowers" (hathphul) worn over the metacarpals on the back of the hand and linking a bracelet to finger rings. A bejeweled hathphul, attributed to northern India, 18th–19th century, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (41.100.116).
Selected Bibliography: Pal, Pratapaditya and Catherine Glynn. The Sensuous Line: Indian Drawings from the Paul F. Walter Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1976.
El Universo de la India: Obras Maestras del Museo de Arte del Condado de Los Angeles. Santiago: Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda, 2012.

Unknown
Garuda Flying through the Aircirca 1750-1775

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Unknown
Title: Garuda Flying through the Air
Place Made: India, Rajasthan, Bundi
Date Made: circa 1750-1775
Medium: Ink and opaque watercolor on paper
Dimensions: 24 1/4 x 27 3/8 in. (61.59 x 69.53 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Paul F. Walter
Accession Number: M.79.191.24
Classification: Drawings
Collecting Area: South and Southeast Asian Art
Curatorial Notes: The sunbird Garuda is the half-avian, half-human mount (vahana) of Vishnu, the Hindu God of Preservation. Here, Vishnu is depicted symbolically. Rather than portraying Vishnu astride the flying Garuda, as in the contemporaneous M.77.154.12, Garuda is instead alone and carrying two of Vishnu’s principal attributes, the conch (shankha) in his left hand and the mace (gada) in his right hand. He wears a long billowing scarf (angavastra) that trails around his neck and down to his thigh. Garuda is richly ornamented with a triple earring, necklace, armlets, anklets, and palm cuffs or "hand flowers" (hathphul) worn over the metacarpals on the back of the hand and linking a bracelet to finger rings. A bejeweled hathphul, attributed to northern India, 18th–19th century, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (41.100.116).
Selected Bibliography: Pal, Pratapaditya and Catherine Glynn. The Sensuous Line: Indian Drawings from the Paul F. Walter Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1976.
El Universo de la India: Obras Maestras del Museo de Arte del Condado de Los Angeles. Santiago: Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda, 2012.