The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 20, 2024
Hindu God Krishna Being Dressed in Women's Clothes for Spring Festival Holi
c. 1790
Overall: 19 x 27.4 cm (7 1/2 x 10 13/16 in.)
Edward L. Whittemore Fund 1933.453
Location: not on view
Description
The festival of Holi, which celebrates the arrival of spring, is a time of play when transgressing boundaries is allowed as part of the reckless joy and abandon of the day. Vats of colored water and powder in the foreground are used to fill handheld pumps to shoot colors at one another. The young women of the cowherd village where Krishna grew up gather around, fill their pumps, begin to play music, and cheekily dress Krishna as one of them. Radha, his favorite, holds his crown up high as she takes it away. He indulges them, just as he indulged all his devotees by taking on a human form. This unfinished work reveals the process of creating an Indian painting. The drawing was probably made by the master of the atelier who would have added the color notations, then given it to a colorist to paint. Another artist might have finished the faces and another the gold details before the work came back to the master for its finishing touches and final approval.- ?-1933Ananda K. Coomaraswamy [1877-1947], Boston, MA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art1933-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 245). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (April 28-November 2, 2015.Dance of the Gods: Indian Art Inspired by Music. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 24-December 8, 1996).
- {{cite web|title=Hindu God Krishna Being Dressed in Women's Clothes for Spring Festival Holi|url=false|author=|year=c. 1790|access-date=20 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1933.453