Krishna and Balarama Fight the Evil King Kamsa’s Wrestlers: Page from a Dispersed Bhagavata Purana
Details
- Palette
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- Dimensions
- Image: 6 1/2 × 7 3/4 in. (16.5 × 19.7 cm) Mat: 6 3/4 × 7 3/4 in. (17.1 × 19.7 cm)
- Department
- Asian Art
- Holding institution
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Image provider
- metropolitan-museum-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alvin N. Haas, 1973
Art Genome Taxonomy
12 tags
Subject Matter
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Mythology and Religion Both · 99%
The museum identifies the scene as an episode from the Bhagavata Purana involving Krishna, and the image presents a religious narrative with crowned and ornamented figures engaged in combat.
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Narrative Both · 99%
The work depicts a specific story event with two wrestling encounters, and the catalog provides the episode’s full narrative title.
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Movement Both · 99%
The four figures are shown in active grappling poses with bent knees, extended legs, twisting torsos, and interlocked arms; wrestling is also a cataloged subject.
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Human Figure Both · 99%
Four clearly rendered human figures occupy the main image, and the catalog lists men among the subjects.
Visual Qualities
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Dark Colors Visual · 94%
The principal image is dominated by a dark maroon ground and a dark blue-black horizontal band, contrasted with pale bodies and brightly colored garments.
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Flatness Visual · 91%
The scene uses broad, relatively flat areas of color, strong contour lines, and limited spatial recession rather than volumetric or atmospheric depth.
Medium and Techniques
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Painting Both · 99%
The object is cataloged as a painting and visibly consists of painted and inked imagery on a bounded page.
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Work on Paper Both · 99%
The museum specifies ink and opaque watercolor on paper, while the image visibly shows a painted manuscript sheet.
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Watercolor Metadata · 96%
The recorded medium is ink and opaque watercolor on paper.
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Manuscript Both · 99%
The museum identifies the work as a page from a dispersed Bhagavata Purana manuscript, and the image shows a ruled page with an inscriptional register above the scene.
Time Periods
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17th Century Art Metadata · 98%
The work is dated circa 1650, within the cataloged range of 1640–1660.
Geographic Regions
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Indian Art Metadata · 99%
The museum records the place of origin as India, specifically Madhya Pradesh and the Malwa region.
Source & rights
Unknown artist. Krishna and Balarama Fight the Evil King Kamsa’s Wrestlers: Page from a Dispersed Bhagavata Purana. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.