Madhu Madhavi Ragini (c. 1630–40): Art, History and Details

Madhu Madhavi Ragini (c. 1630–40) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

One of the first paintings to be published and exhibited as an example of native Indian court painting without foreign stylistic influence, this work emphasizes the expression of mood and emotion rather than pictorial narrative. Through bold contrasting color, suggestive gaze, and poetic trope, the viewer accesses the charged excitement of lovers about to be united with the coming of the monsoon at night. The reclining hero admires the alluring form of his beloved who, startled by the lightning and the cry of the peacock, stops and twists around in a dramatic pause that sets off her figure to especially good effect. She raises one hand to feel the first drops of monsoon rain that signal the beginning of the season of lovemaking, when her lover remains at home.

Object facts

• Title: Madhu Madhavi Ragini
• Date: c. 1630–40
• Culture: Central India, Malwa
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 19.1 x 14.6 cm (7 1/2 x 5 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1925.1336

Collection credit

Gift of J. H. Wade

Further reading listed by the museum

• "A Rajput Painting." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 20, no. 4 (April 1933): 56–59
• Lee, Sherman. "The Decorative and the Super-Real: Two Rajasthani Miniatures." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 44, no. 8 (October 1957): 180-183.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

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.