An illustration of Krishna on his throne bed, Bikaner, circa 1720 - 1750

A miniature painting of Krishna on his throne bed
Bikaner, circa 1720 - 1750

watercolor heightened with gold on paper

Height 8⅜ in., 21.3 cm; Width 5⅜ in., 12.7 cm

Catalogue Note:
A light blue sky descends into a mossy green, where the background meets the horizon line of a marble terrace. Green and yellow honeycomb tiles atop the garden pavilion’s roof bring out the fluid streaks of golden clouds in the sky. Floral motifs fill the textiles and panels that decorate the pavilion as well as the large bed around which three elegant female attendants wait on a regal figure, hand and foot.

The identity of the adored male herein is revealed by his sky-blue skin and the obscured peacock feather on the proper-left side of his five-pointed diadem. Krishna’s crown style resembles that exactly of a Bikaner painter Ibrahim’s 1692 Rasikapriya illustration in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum (acc. no. 81.192.3).

The present painting exhibits figures with cinched waists, the use of linear perspective, and a gold-speckled border—all typical features of paintings from Bikaner, a major center of painting of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries within Rajasthan. The inscription which appears under the lower right corner of the painted image refers to the divine Krishna in a loving Urdu epithet, “Mohan Lal.”