Serpent-charmer

The man is wearing a costume consisting of a pleated skirt and shirt adorned with a white collar on which two stone necklaces can be seen. On his arms four bracelets, three with beads like the necklaces and the fourth in worked and engraved metal. The clothes, the turban covering a full head of hair and the Persian "high-top" shoes are in orange, in a soft wash of colour where bolder tones highlight the forms drawn in charcoal. The jewellery is finished off with the huge black earring that hangs from one ear. On his face a full beard and moustache reveal the musician’s lips blowing a flute, whose sound accompanies the weaving, hooded snake, emerging to the right of the composition from the undergrowth on a small outcrop of land.
Watercolour, made by author and European technique, depicts a typical Indian figure.
Carla Alferes Pinto in The Portuguese Presence in Asia Catalogue. Museu do Oriente, 2008, p. 78-86.