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

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

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

c. 1590

Mughal India, court of Akbar

(reigned 1556–1605)
Medium
Gum tempera and gold on paper
Measurements
Page: 31.6 x 20.7 cm (12 7/16 x 8 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection 2013.311
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Did You Know?

The four strings of the woman’s khuuchir would have been made from silk.

Description

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.
A vertically oriented tempera painting depicts a woman with light skin tone holding and looking at a lotus flower in her left hand, standing in a yellow-brown desert landscape. She wears a purple-pink dress and blue cloak, brown hair looped into an up-do with a white feather above her forehead. In her right hand at her side she holds a khuuchir, a string instrument with a circular body and narrow neck thrice the body's length.

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

c. 1590

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

See Also

  • Collection
    Indian
  • Department
    Indian and Southeast Asian Art
  • Type of artwork
    Painting
  • Medium
    Tempera
  • Credit line
    Gift In Honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by Exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection

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