Three Musicians Perform Before a King: Shri Raga, from a Ragamala (c. 1650): Art, History and Details

Three Musicians Perform Before a King: Shri Raga, from a Ragamala (c. 1650) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

A king sits on a throne with a yogic band around his legs, listening to the music of two sages: a blue-skinned sage on a stringed instrument (vina), and a white-skinned one playing cymbals. A standing percussionist accompanies them on a drum. An attendant behind the king holds the royal canopy over his head.

Object facts

• Title: Three Musicians Perform Before a King: Shri Raga, from a Ragamala
• Date: c. 1650
• Culture: Central India, Madhya Pradesh, Malwa
• Type: Painting
• Technique: gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: 20.8 x 16.5 cm (8 3/16 x 6 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2018.131

A detail from the museum

Rainspouts in the form of mythical elephant-crocodiles (makara) hold yellow flags in their trunks.

Collection credit

Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

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.