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Source Description
The painting is divided into nine separate panels, each of which is a complete composition and could have been an independent picture. The artist seems to have followed the mural tradition practiced in both temples and palaces, in which the stories are similarly depicted in individual panels. This is the case with the painted wall segments from Chamba preserved in the National Museum, New Delhi. There seems to be no particular order, chronological or otherwise, in the distribution of the various episodes from Krishna's life. Beginning from the top left and moving horizontally, the themes can be identified as follows: dalliance of Radha and Krishna; Krishna steals the clothes of the bathing cowgirls; Krishna tied to the mortar in the twin Arjuna tree incident; Krishna destroys the horse-demon Keshi; Krishna slays the calf-demon Dheruka; Krishna quells the forest fire; infant Krishna kills the ogress Putana; the submission of Brahma; and a prince or poet pays obeisance to the enthroned Krishna.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
3362
label
Episodes from the Life of Krishna
core
obj
dtoType
object
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
3362
sourceUrl
contentType
object
stage
normalized
title
Episodes from the Life of Krishna
description
The painting is divided into nine separate panels, each of which is a complete composition and could have been an independent picture. The artist seems to have followed the mural tradition practiced in both temples and palaces, in which the stories are similarly depicted in individual panels. This is the case with the painted wall segments from Chamba preserved in the National Museum, New Delhi. There seems to be no particular order, chronological or otherwise, in the distribution of the various episodes from Krishna's life. Beginning from the top left and moving horizontally, the themes can be identified as follows: dalliance of Radha and Krishna; Krishna steals the clothes of the bathing cowgirls; Krishna tied to the mortar in the twin Arjuna tree incident; Krishna destroys the horse-demon Keshi; Krishna slays the calf-demon Dheruka; Krishna quells the forest fire; infant Krishna kills the ogress Putana; the submission of Brahma; and a prince or poet pays obeisance to the enthroned Krishna.
provenance
John and Berthe Ford, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 2002, by gift.
date
ca. 1800-1850
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Manuscripts & Rare Books
miniatures (paintings)
imageCount
1
pageCount
1
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
26.7
height
34.9
dimensionsRaw
H: 10 1/2 x W: 13 3/4 in. (26.67 x 34.93 cm); Framed H: 26 1/4 × W: 21 3/4 × D: 1 1/2 in. (66.68 × 55.25 × 3.81 cm)
Source extras
med
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
creator_ids
2191
collection_ids
INT
exhibition_ids
none
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
2ac96f274ea45d5b