About the Artist

Bhanu Dudhat is an Indian artist born in 1949 born to a poor Kanbi Leuva family. His talent showed early on in his childhood, leading him to purse art in higher education. An artist with much versatility, Dudhat has worked on art in many different forms including sculpture, fresco painting, and filmmaking. Dudhat has earned several awards for his many masterpieces. To this day, Dudhat continues to follow his ambitions as an aspiring artist.

Discussion and Analysis

This image depicts the Three Magi before King Herod when he hears about the birth of Jesus. The artist portrays several aspects of the bible passage using different visual cues. Every subject in the painting is facing towards Jesus in the star, except one of the magi facing King Herod. The peculiar magi foreshadows their loyalty to King Herod later on when they return to him despite a having a divine dream advising them not to. King Herod is pointing at Jesus with one hand and has the other hand on his sword. This shows the malicious intent he has towards the messiah. Jesus sits at a higher point in the painting than King Herod does. By depicting it this way, the artist insinuates that Jesus is in fact the king of the Jews and is a threat to Herod. The colors in the painting are much more vibrant on the left side, whereas the colors on the right side are a bit more faded. The contrast between the colors shows the difference between who is in the painting; the supporters of Jesus versus the subjects of King Herod. The artist uses distinct facial expressions to depict the interest of the subjects on the left side, whereas the subjects’ facial expressions on the right side do not show as much interest. This plays into the future uncertainty of following the Christian faith. The overall painting has minimal depth, reminding the viewer that we must always think deeper than the surface of a bible passage to find its true meaning, like Luke interpreting ‘neighbor’ in his gospel.

Dudhat, Bhanu. King Herrod, ca. late 20th century. http://www.dudhatartgallery.com/bible.html

Julianne Low is a student at St. Olaf, part of the class of 2020. She is a nursing major-hopeful.