A lithograph titled simply "Savitri," produced in Calcutta, West Bengal, ca. 1885-90, part of the late nineteenth century wave of Indian devotional prints reproducing classical religious narratives for a mass audience. It shows the Mahabharata heroine whose devotion won her husband Satyavan back from Yama, god of death. Held today by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Asian Art department, under accession 2020.18, Purchase, Friends of Asian Art Gifts, 2020.
Facts
Subject Matter
Devotional FunctionPrints like this one belong to the wave of mass produced devotional lithographs, sometimes called god posters, that Calcutta studios such as the Calcutta Art Studio and the Chorebagan Art Studio began producing in the 1880s for a broad Hindu buying public, gradually displacing the older hand cut woodblock prints associated with the city's Battala district. 1 Classification
Object TypePrint (Engraving, Etching, Woodcut or Lithograph) 1 Medium (class) Physical Form
MediumLithograph, Calcutta, ca. 1885-90, Metropolitan Museum of Art 2020.18 1 Connections
Associated With
This source names Bengal directly: ""Savitri," produced in Calcutta, West Bengal, ca."
Source Savitri, accession 2020.18 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Belongs to Tradition
Source Savitri, accession 2020.18 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Depicts
The Met's own title for this lithograph is the subject's name alone, "Savitri," and the museum's own catalog note identifies her explicitly as a figure from Hindu mythology, a direct identification rather than a bare thematic tag.
Source Savitri, accession 2020.18 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Originated In
India, Regions Source Savitri, accession 2020.18 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Sources
1. Savitri, accession 2020.18 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Metropolitan Museum of Art- accession 2020.18
catalogue record, medium/object-type description
A lithograph titled simply "Savitri," produced in Calcutta, West Bengal, ca.
Originated In: India, Collection record: culture, country and region fields
India, West Bengal, Calcutta
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