An Indian Yogi Tied to a Palm Tree mid-17th–late 17th century Willem Schellinks Dutch As described in the extensive inscription in Schellinks’s hand, this drawing shows an Indian yogi chained to a tree; another figure bows before him, having brought him offerings of food. In the middle distance, another figure rides an elephant. Schellinks is not known to have traveled to India, but his brother Laurens, a surgeon employed by the Dutch East India Company (VOC), seems to have done so.[1] This drawing could be Willem’s reconstruction, or re-imagination, of a sight described to him. It is equally

An Indian Yogi Tied to a Palm Tree mid-17th–late 17th century Willem Schellinks Dutch As described in the extensive inscription in Schellinks’s hand, this drawing shows an Indian yogi chained to a tree; another figure bows before him, having brought him offerings of food. In the middle distance, another figure rides an elephant. Schellinks is not known to have traveled to India, but his brother Laurens, a surgeon employed by the Dutch East India Company (VOC), seems to have done so.[1] This drawing could be Willem’s reconstruction, or re-imagination, of a sight described to him. It is equally possible, however, that he adapted the image from a Mughal painting, several examples of which are known to have been in the Dutch Republic in the mid-seventeenth century and to have inspired Schellinks to paint images incorporating Mughal motifs (and to write a poem about Indian art). It is plausible that he saw an image similar to the depiction of the emperor Babur visiting the ascetics of Gorkhatri (from the Baburnama manuscript in the British Library), which features members of the Nāth order not chained to but seated under trees with their legs bound in yogic poses with straps. Yogic practices were of great fascination to the Mughal emperors, particularly Akbar (1542-1605), for whom the depiction of his grandfather at Gorghatri and various others highly detailed images of yogis were painted.[2]Unlike Schellinks’s paintings of recontextualized Mughal motifs and figures, the present drawing shows an interest in ethnographic authenticity. Touches of red chalk indicate the color of the loincloth and flag. Graphite is employed to clarify details, particularly the iron chain. The image could have been intended as part of a larger project and/or for a patron with a particular interest in global cultures, someone like Laurens van der Hem, for whom Schellinks produced landscape drawings of other foreign locales.(JSS, 8/23/2018)[1] Laurens Schellinks’s will refers to an (

How we Work

Contribute

Legal

Contact Us