A PICHHWAI TEMPLE HANGING: KRISHNA AND THE GOPIS
Possibly Jaipur, Rajasthan, North-Western India, 20th century

Opaque pigments heightened with gold and silver on indigo-dyed cotton, the horizontal composition featuring a starry dark ground symmetrically painted with a pair of trees and adoring gopis flanking the flutist deity, Lord Krishna, pairs of peacocks in trees invading the dramatic clouds above, the sky decorated with three fantastical regal thrones of Hindu deities including Shiva and Parvati, and Indra and his consort, the base with a band of holy cows marked with the deity's hand in red and their calves, above a band of flowering water lilies in a pond, edges reinforced with jute band, 170cm x 212cm.