Cleveland Museum of Art

A prince celebrating Holi with palace women on a terrace at night (recto)

Date

c. 1760

Medium

Gum tempera and gold on paper

Culture

India, Farrukhabad, Mughal, 18th century

Department

Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Images of pleasure and play abound in Mughal paintings of the latter half of the 1700s. Under a full moon reflected off a river and by the light of candles, a prince celebrates the spring festival of Holi with a group of palace women. Holi festivities include the boisterous tradition of smearing one another with colored powders—shown heaped on dishes—or shooting colored liquid using plunger guns. Pairs of ducks swim under the full moon on the night of the vernal equinox.

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