Pradyumna and Samvara fight with maces, from the "Large Basohli Bhagavata Purana"
Paintings from this Pahari series often place figures against boldly contrasting backgrounds. Here, the scene that takes place a moment before the prince Pradyumna’s mace, or club, vanquishes the demon Samvara is frozen in time. Years before, the demon heard a prophecy that Pradyumna would one day murder him. Hearing this, Samvara kidnapped Pradyumna as an infant and threw him into the ocean, where a fish swallowed him. The fish was caught and brought to Samvara’s kitchen, where the woman who would become his wife, Mayavati, discovered the baby still alive in its belly. Pradyumna lived to fulfill the prophecy, eventually killing the demon in this fight.
Colors in this work
Details
- Artist
- Unknown artist
- Date
- c. 1760–65
- Dimensions
- image: height 0.28 m, width 0.383 m; overall: height 0.302 m, width 0.41 m
- Department
- Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Holding institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Palette
-
Select a color to find related artworks.
- Image provider
- cleveland-museum-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Gift of the Mundane Club
Art Genome Taxonomy
12 tags
Subject Matter
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Mythology and Religion Metadata · 99%
The Cleveland Museum of Art identifies the scene as an episode from the Bhagavata Purana, depicting Pradyumna and Samvara in combat.
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Narrative Metadata · 99%
The catalog identifies a specific episode from the Bhagavata Purana, while the image presents opposing figures and suspended weapons in an unfolding action.
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Conflict Both · 99%
The catalog describes the encounter between Pradyumna and Samvara; visually, the two figures face one another with maces crossed overhead.
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Hybrids and Imaginary Creatures Visual · 98%
The large left-hand figure has an elephant head, trunk, ears, tail, and clawed animal-like feet combined with a human torso and arms.
Visual Qualities
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Bright and Vivid Colors Visual · 99%
The composition uses a saturated vermilion-red field, green ground, pale gray-white figure, bright yellow costume, and extensive yellow-gold accents.
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Highly Ornamented Visual · 97%
The figures and their garments, headdresses, jewelry, and weapons contain dense repeated decorative detailing.
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Asymmetrical Visual · 96%
The two figures are unevenly distributed and differ greatly in scale, producing an asymmetrical composition across the broad red field.
Medium and Techniques
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Painting Metadata · 99%
The object is classified as a painting and is made with gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper.
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Work on Paper Metadata · 99%
The catalog specifies paper as the support for the gum tempera, ink, and gold.
Time Periods
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18th Century Art Metadata · 99%
The catalog dates the work to circa 1760–65, within the eighteenth century.
Geographic Regions
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Indian Art Metadata · 99%
The work originated in Northern India, in the Pahari kingdoms.
Materials
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Gold Metadata · 98%
Gold is explicitly listed in the cataloged medium and appears in the maces, jewelry, headdresses, and costume details.
Source & rights
Unknown artist. Pradyumna and Samvara fight with maces, from the "Large Basohli Bhagavata Purana". Cleveland Museum of Art.
High-resolution sources
- Original TIFF ↗ 6,965 × 5,129 · Cleveland Museum Of Art · Available