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Gaudi Ragini

c. 1700–1725

Medium: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Classification: Painting
Dimensions: Image: 25.5 x 19 cm (10 1/16 x 7 1/2 in.); Overall: 30.7 x 23.8 cm (12 1/16 x 9 3/8 in.)
Culture: India, Rajasthan, probably Jaipur, 18th century
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Credit line: Gift of the American Foundation for the Maud E. and Warren H. Corning Botanical Collection
Rights: Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it: Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed

About this work

Adept in the arts of love, according to the verse, a sixteen-year-old girl “tarries in the garden, confused of mind,” holding flowers from the wishing tree, no companion with her. Four black bucks seem to have emerged from the dense woods, attracted to her, while monkeys leer at her from above. The shining white architecture atop sherbet-hued walls and the tall peaked hill are characteristic of paintings from the Rajput kingdom of Amber, which would later be renamed Jaipur. The music of Gauri Ragini is intended to be enjoyed during the winter months.