A Disconsolate Lady on a Terrace with Attendants

A Disconsolate Lady on a Terrace with Attendants

Unknown artist

This princess is waiting for her lover to arrive. Thinking of him, she touches her breast and her lap, while one attendant keeps flies off with the royal whisk, and the other bites her finger in a gesture of astonishment. The artist has whimsically manipulated elements of the landscape, such as the blazing sun peeking out from behind the flat black hill at the lower left corner, and invading the yellow strip at the top with blocks of blue sky to accommodate the finials of the palace rooftops.

Colors in this work

Details

Date
c. 1730
Dimensions
miniature: height 0.235 m, width 0.152 m; page: height 0.283 m, width 0.229 m
Holding institution
Cleveland Museum of Art
Image provider
cleveland-museum-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

Art Genome Taxonomy

12 tags

Subject Matter

  • Human Figure Both · 99%

    Three female figures are prominently depicted, and the catalog identifies the central woman as a princess accompanied by attendants.

  • Love Metadata · 97%

    The museum description states that the central figure is waiting for her lover, making romantic attachment a stated subject of the scene.

  • Implied Narrative Both · 96%

    The image presents a staged moment involving an absent lover, while the catalog describes waiting, gestures, and the reactions of the attendants.

Visual Qualities

  • Bright and Vivid Colors Visual · 99%

    Saturated yellow, red, orange, green, pink, and blue appear across the border, sky, architecture, vegetation, clothing, and textiles.

Medium and Techniques

  • Painting Metadata · 99%

    The Cleveland Museum of Art classifies the object as a painting.

  • The catalog identifies the work as a miniature measuring 0.235 by 0.152 meters within a larger page.

  • Tempera Metadata · 99%

    The recorded medium is gum tempera.

  • Work on Paper Metadata · 99%

    The catalog identifies paper as the support, and the image presents a bordered painted page.

Time Periods

  • 18th Century Art Metadata · 99%

    The work is dated circa 1730, within the cataloged range of 1720–1740.

Geographic Regions

  • Indian Art Metadata · 99%

    The catalog places the work in northwestern India, Rajasthan, in the Rajput Kingdom of Raghogarh.

Materials

  • Silver Metadata · 98%

    Silver is listed as part of the recorded medium: gum tempera, silver, and gold on paper.

  • Gold Metadata · 98%

    Gold is listed as part of the recorded medium: gum tempera, silver, and gold on paper.

Source & rights

Unknown artist. A Disconsolate Lady on a Terrace with Attendants. Cleveland Museum of Art.

High-resolution sources