Radha Awaiting Reconciliation with Krishna, from a Gita Govinda of Jayadeva (c. 1680): Art, History and Details

Radha Awaiting Reconciliation with Krishna, from a Gita Govinda of Jayadeva (c. 1680) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The artist has depicted Krishna’s favorite lover, Radha, six times to emphasize her agitation while she waits for Krishna. She has made intimate enclosures of flowering branches for their tryst, she pleads with a picture of him, and she lays out blossoms and liquor under a tree in preparation. Her confidante makes an appeal to Krishna who sits under a tree at right, seemingly unmoved and dispassionate. The viewer is meant to put oneself in the place of Radha, and feel her intense longing for Krishna. Even when it seems like the god does not come when he promises, that he does not care, the devotee, like Radha, should continue to wait and prepare to receive him.

Object facts

• Title: Radha Awaiting Reconciliation with Krishna, from a Gita Govinda of Jayadeva
• Date: c. 1680
• Culture: Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Mewar
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 21.3 x 25.3 cm (8 3/8 x 9 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1990.41

Collection credit

Gift of John D. Proctor

Further reading listed by the museum

• Czuma, Stanislaw J. Indian Art from the George P. Bickford Collection: Catalog. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1975.

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.