Untitled (Madonna and Jesus with the Magi)

There are not many Indian artists who have explored Christian iconography in art using an Indian idiom as prolifically as Jamini Roy (with the exception of F. N. Souza, who was born Christian and whose art was more globally modernist than essentially Indian). In doing so, Roy created a body of work that is unique, and an epitome of how stories with universal appeal are adopted by cultures far and wide. The Magi (wise men) in this work, as also Mary with baby Jesus, acquire a folk Indian flavour even as the composition of the picture and the gestures of the figures succinctly convey one of the most important stories of Christian tradition.