Cleveland Museum of Art

Gunakali Ragini

Date

c. 1750

Medium

Gum tempera and gold on paper

Culture

Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Jaipur

Department

Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

A princess sits on a throne under a canopy. Her companion holds the royal fly whisk above her head. According to the verse at the top, she absentmindedly plucks flowers as she daydreams about lovemaking. Below, a woman holds an instrument, possibly referring to the musical compositions that were played for the viewers in accordance with the scene and mood of the verse. The two women kneel on a carpet, which the artist has tilted up to a vertical plane, so its pattern of stylized water lilies on a bold orange ground surrounded by a green border with undulating flowering vines can be fully seen. Sets of paintings by royal court artists, such as the Ragamala series from which this page came, were made for sale, rather than for the private collection of the king.

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