Untitled

Anonymous Early Bengal oils are an epitome of the amalgamation of various influences playing out in Bengal in the nineteenth century with the displacement of native rulers and British ascendancy. Popular Hindu religious story—of goddess Kali in gold jewellery stepping on the prostrate body of Lord Shiva in battlefield by mistake and sticking out her tongue upon realisation—has distinct indigenous stylisation in miniature relief, evident in the green thicket in the background and the fauna, which is, however, placed oddly in a field of severed heads. The untrained artists also added depth in the Western manner to such canvases.