Cleveland Museum of Art

A female figure standing in a landscape holding a four-stringed “khuuchir” and a lotus

Date

c. 1590

Medium

Gum tempera and gold on paper

Culture

Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)

Department

Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Standing over flowering sprigs, holding a lotus like a scepter, the figure seems to magically impart fertility to a desert. In pan-Indian religious iconography (system of visual symbols that identify a figure), the lotus is held by the goddess of good fortune, prosperity, and abundance, who is frequently associated with ideal kingship. The stringed instrument recalls the Indian goddess of learning and music, but here it is of a Mongolian type, as is the feather in her crown. Her garments are reminiscent of those worn by biblical and classical figures in European engravings. This painting combines Indian, European, and Mongolian references. The four strings of the woman’s khuuchir would have been made from silk.

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