Krishna Vanquishing the Crane-Demon Bakasura (late 1700s): Art, History and Details

Krishna Vanquishing the Crane-Demon Bakasura (late 1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The Hindu god Vishnu incarnated himself as Krishna in response to pleadings from the Earth goddess to rid her of a wicked king. The king sent demons of many forms to assassinate Krishna, who effortlessly destroyed them. The South Indian artist effectively used a diagonal composition to show the cause and effect of Krishna’s assault and the fall of the defeated demon.

Object facts

• Title: Krishna Vanquishing the Crane-Demon Bakasura
• Date: late 1700s
• Culture: Southern India, Andhra Pradesh, Tirupati
• Type: Painting
• Technique: gum tempera and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 27.8 x 19.7 cm (10 15/16 x 7 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1966.29

A detail from the museum

The true form of the crane-demon tumbles out from the backside of the distressed bird.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Leach, Linda York. Indian Miniature Paintings and Drawings. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1986.

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.