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Women bathing before an architectural panorama
Fayzullah (Indian, active c. 1730–1765)
c. 1765
- Medium
- Gum tempera and gold on paper
- Classification
- Painting
- Culture
- India, Lucknow, Mughal
- 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
- Adult profiles and older: its museum's description or title mentions nudity. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Despite the wars waged and forts besieged in the background, life in the palace is carefree and luxurious. Some women enjoy hookahs and music on balconies, while others swim and drink liquor with abandon from Chinese porcelain cups and bottles. The artist has placed his name under the central pavilion, observing the scene across a formal garden of marigolds. The artist seems to have enjoyed experimenting with the idea of perspective, learned from European sources. He created a rapidly receding space that telescopes the view from the intimate harem quarters to the distant battlefields.