Cleveland Museum of Art
Augury of the crow (Vasakasajja Nayika)
- Date
- c. 1800
- Medium
- Gum tempera and gold on paper
- Culture
- Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
- Department
- Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 154757
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
The heroine in the doorway is waiting for her husband to return, but he is delayed, and ominous monsoon clouds gather in the distance. The pomegranate tree in her garden has ripe fruits replete with seeds and bright red juices, suggestive of her fertility, but a crow is perched there. The sound of a crow’s voice is an unlucky omen, and this further compounds her anxiety. Depictions of tense, relatable situations were made to elicit empathy in the viewer and emotions that heightened the pleasure of viewing and savoring paintings. Nayika is the term for a heroine figure in Indian art, literature, and drama.
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Bequest of Mrs. Severance A. Millikin
- Provenance
- Raja of Lambagraon | ?–1967: (B. R. Sharma, New Delhi, India, to Severance and Greta Millikin) | 1967–1989: Severance A. [1895–1985] and Greta [Marguerite Steckerl] Millikin [1903–1989], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 1989–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
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