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Shiva under trees
c. 1780
- Medium
- Gum tempera on paper
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Overall: 18.2 x 14 cm (7 3/16 x 5 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Cut from a larger composition, this fragment shows the god Shiva who has come down to earth. He seems alluringly approachable despite his white body, the snake around his neck, his third eye, trident weapon, animal-skin garment, and the crescent moon at his brow. Set off against a flat red background, he stands under two shade trees that make his manifestation on earth believable. One tree is entwined around the other, metaphorically suggesting the physical love Shiva seems to wistfully desire.
