A Garden Scene

A court lady stands under a canopy in a lavish garden, her servant prostrate beside her. The highly stylized and lyrical poses of the figures suggest that this image was not intended as the depiction of an actual event or persons. Rather, it was likely made to set a mood or stir up certain emotions in the viewer. Sets of paintings like this were known as ragamalas, or “string of melodies, ” and each painting in the set would be associated with a specific tune, mood, or time of day.