Window mode follows your eyes with your camera, in this browser only: no picture or position leaves your device.

A princess reclining on a terrace with attendants

c. 1730–1740

Medium: Gum tempera and gold on paper
Classification: Painting
Dimensions: Page: 20.6 x 30.6 cm (8 1/8 x 12 1/16 in.)
Culture: India, Mughal, 18th century
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
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
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

This scene presents an idealized view of the life of a Mughal princess. Bejeweled and dressed in costly garments, she reclines on a couch set up on a white marble terrace. She watches two musicians sing and clap time, and a companion pours for her a cup of liquor. Two attendants stand behind, one waving a whisk to keep away the insects and another holding a box of paan, a betel-leaf preparation for freshening the breath. At the far right an older woman of the harem holds a fan while enjoying a hookah.