Kinnala Apsaras (Pair)

Pair of Kinnala apsaras from Karnataka. Kinnala craft comes from a village called Kinnal or Kinhal in Karnataka. This disappearing craft dates back to the Vijayanagara era where kings invited crafts people from across India to come and work in their capital Hampi. 
After the decline of the Empire, families migrated to other regions in search of patronage from different Nawabs. It is thought the early practitioners, still called Chitragars (the name means ‘one who draws/paints’), were painters and sculptors of temples and palaces in Hampi. These apsaras would have been sculpted from wood, fitted together and then coated with thick tamarind gum that can be worked into the correct shapes to build up facial features. Then layers of cloth soaked in tamarind paste would be applied to coat the figure, followed by traditional vegetable colours as paint.
The two pieces measure 24 (H) x 18.5 (W) x 8 (D) inches and 26.5 (H) x 16 (W) x 8 (D) inches.