c. 1800

Krishna Raises Mount Govardhana

This image of Krishna raising the mountain to shelter the villagers conveys a very different mood from other paintings of the subject. Rather than glorying in the details of the narrative, the painter creates an icon of Krishna the god, whose serenely raised left hand does not even touch the great pink mountain it ostensibly supports. Only the worried cowherds, running to help with their herding staffs, lend any drama to this solemn adoration of the deity. With its flat and simple composition, colorful cows, and preponderance of bright orange and pink, this illustration is clearly related to paintings from the Gujarati Bhagavata Purana of about 1720 also in the Museum's collection. However, the size of the page, format of the border, and details show that it is from a different series, and the clothing indicates a somewhat later date.