Radha and Krishna

This painting is an illustration to the Hindi text the Rasikapriya ('A Connoisseur's Delight'). The author, Keshav Das, wrote it in Orchha in Madhya Pradesh in 1591. It is concerned mainly with love and types of lovers, and these are usually represented by the Hindu god Krishna and his mortal lover, Radha. Here, Krishna, recognisable by his blue skin, is seated before Radha against a plain red background between stylized trees. A monkey, a deer and a bird are also present. This set has a colophon (in a private collection) which gives the date of completion as 1634. A colophon is a short text at the end of a set of paintings that gives the date and place where it was completed. The sparse, simple style is typical of paintings done in Malwa, Central India (today's Madhya Pradesh), throughout much of the 17th century.