Baby Krishna Asking for Butter from Yashoda, from a Kalighat album

Cleveland Museum of Art

Baby Krishna Asking for Butter from Yashoda, from a Kalighat album

Date
c. 1890
Medium
Gum tempera, graphite, ink, and tin on paper
Culture
Eastern India, Kolkata, Kalighat
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Institution
Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID
162447

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

As the incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, whose followers recognize as the deity who creates and destroys the universe, Krishna was always eating. Like time itself, which ultimately consumes everything, Krishna eats so much his foster mother Yashoda cannot believe it. When she looks in his mouth, she sees the cosmos and realizes he is not an ordinary baby. Kalighat artists made metallic pigment out of tin to look like silver.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line
Gift of William E. Ward in memory of his wife, Evelyn Svec Ward
Provenance
?–2003: William E. Ward [1922–2004], Solon, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 2003–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

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