Servant of Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic
unknown
Basic information
Additionally
- Type
- painting
- Provenance
- Purchased from a private individual
- Exposition
- Zolochiv Castle (Chinese Palace)
Information about author
Object description
The dark red background shows a full-length man dressed in the traditional festive Nilame costume in white and yellow shades, a wide manthaya collar and a quadrangular hat with a tassel. He was a servant of the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy. Despite his high status, he is depicted barefoot as stockings and shoes came only with the royal costume. In his right hand he holds a lotus flower, a symbol of administrative power in Sri Lanka. The image is flat and all the elements of the image point in one direction, typical of mural paintings in Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka. On either side of the man's feet is a depiction of curled vines with jasmine flowers. The perimeter of the painting has a flat frame 6 cm wide and the edges are irregular.
Inscriptions
In the left bottom corner «1870», on the reverse side «Roshan Sathyajith»
