Indian carved panel – Yali and Annapakshi décor

This antique wooden Indian carved panel features a décor of Yalis and mythical Annapakshi birds, deeply carved into the wood. Traces of red pigment remain in a few recesses.

• L 76.5 cm x H 21 cm x D 3.5 cm
• Weight: 4 kg

Chettinad Indian carved panel – 19th century

This architectural panel is carved from a single piece of East Indian satinwood (Chloroxylon swietenia), also known as Ceylon satinwood. From Chettinad in Tamil Nadu, it features a dense composition combining Yali-type creatures, stylised birds and vegetal motifs deeply cut into the wood. With its elongated format, it may have belonged to a lintel, a door panel or a decorative element integrated into the interior architecture of a wealthy South Indian residence.

The fantastic figures in the décor evoke Yalis, hybrid protective creatures ubiquitous in Dravidian architecture. The birds depicted appear to belong to the Annam / Annapakshi repertoire, a regional variant of the Hamsa found in traditional Tamil Nadu ornamentation. In Hindu iconography, the Hamsa is associated with Sarasvati and symbolises, among other things, wisdom, knowledge and purity.

The deeply carved relief enhances the play of shadow and gives the panel a strong architectural presence. The wood retains irregularities, tool marks and surface variations consistent with an old hand-carved work. The whole offers a highly rhythmic reading in which animal forms and vegetal motifs gradually merge into a continuous décor.

Like the other panels currently offered, this element was part of a group kept for several decades in the storerooms of Claude de Marteau, alongside Asian sculptures and architectural fragments.