Indian. <em>Belavala Ragini, Page from a Dispersed Ragamala Series</em>, ca. 1680. Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, sheet: 14 15/16 x 11 1/2 in.  (37.9 x 29.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund and Frank L. Babbott Fund, 36.253 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 36.253_SL1.jpg)

Belavala Ragini, Page from a Dispersed Ragamala Series

Artist:Indian

Medium: Opaque watercolor and gold on paper

Geograhical Locations:

Dates:ca. 1680

Dimensions: sheet: 14 15/16 x 11 1/2 in. (37.9 x 29.2 cm) image: 14 9/16 x 8 9/16 in. (37.2 x 21.7 cm)

Collections:

Accession Number: 36.253

Image: 36.253_SL1.jpg,

Catalogue Description:
This large-format Ragamala page epitomizes late seventeenth-century Mewar painting. The central scene in the three registers depicted here shows a woman seated on a bed in a two-story pavilion. While one attendant holds a mirror before her and another holds a morcal, she arranges an earring. At the right two more attendants stand right outside the building. The women are all elegantly dressed in saris and jewelry. Below, seen against a deep blue background, are four musicians seated on a pink carpet. (The costumes of two of the musicians possibly have been repainted to represent females.) To the left is a banana tree and a large flowering shrub. In the upper part of the composition, trees and birds are shown against a deep blue sky. To the left is the sun, painted in gold, with a human face.

Brooklyn Museum