End of Temptation

Though it is titled the End of Temptation, this woodcut actually brings together two different yet important phases of Ananda Moy Banerji’s career—the landscapes of his earlier years spent studying in Santiniketan and the Temptation series that he embarked upon after returning to Delhi from Santiniketan. The placid landscape is veritably the end of man’s quest on land, a visual delight that comes after satiation—the allegory brought forth by the crescent moon sinking in the sea. The peace one experiences after overcoming temptation is alluded to by the apparent harmony of the geographical forms seamlessly making way for each other.