Divine couple seated in a lotus blossom (early 1800s): Art, History and Details

Divine couple seated in a lotus blossom (early 1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

A gigantic, thousand-petaled lotus flower provides an intimate setting for the lovers. They sit on the seed pod of another full-blown lotus flower, which indicates their transcendent nature by elevating them from the mire of the earth. Shown with full face forward in all white, the four-armed male deity has the all-seeing third eye in his brow and holds only a manuscript. The red goddess on his lap grasps a lotus flower in one hand, which communicates her benign and peaceful nature. At the bottom are offerings of flowers, incense, oil lamps, and jeweled cups of pure water or liquor.

Object facts

• Title: Divine couple seated in a lotus blossom
• Date: early 1800s
• Culture: Northern India, Pahari Region, Himachal Pradesh, Rajput Kingdom of Kangra
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 13.3 x 9 cm (5 1/4 x 3 9/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1997.118

A detail from the museum

The five-part butter lamp at the lower right is lit with flames, and smoke wafts from the censer.

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. A. Dean Perry

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.