Hindu God Krishna Being Dressed in Women's Clothes for Spring Festival Holi
Unknown Artist
c. 1790
Medium
Ink and gum tempera on paper
Dimensions
19 × 27.4 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Edward L. Whittemore Fund
Accession Number
1933.453
About this artwork
The festival of Holi, which celebrates the arrival of spring, is a time of play when transgressing boundaries is allowed as part of the reckless joy and abandon of the day. Vats of colored water and powder in the foreground are used to fill handheld pumps to shoot colors at one another. The young women of the cowherd village where Krishna grew up gather around, fill their pumps, begin to play music, and cheekily dress Krishna as one of them. Radha, his favorite, holds his crown up high as she ta...