Shakuntala – Raja Ravi Verma

Shakuntala is an epic painting by celebrated Indian painter, Raja Ravi Varma. Ravi Varma, depicts Shakuntala, an important character of Mahabaratha, pretending to remove a thorn from her foot, while actually looking for her husband/lover, Dushyantha, while her friends call her bluff. Tapati Guha Thakurta, an art historian, wrote;
“This very gesture – the twist and turn of head and body – draws the viewer into the narrative, inviting one to place this scene within an imagined sequence of images and events. On its own, the painting stands like a frozen tableau (like a still from a moving film), plucked out of an on-running spectacle of episodes.”