- Title
- Savant Singh (Reigned 1748-1757) and Bani Thani in the Guise of Krishna and Radha Cruising on Lake Gundalao
- Date Made
- circa 1750-1775
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
- Dimensions
- 14 1/2 x 22 in. (36.83 x 55.88 cm)
Frame: 25 1/2 × 31 1/2 × 2 in. (64.77 × 80.01 × 5.08 cm)
- Accession Number
- AC1999.264.1
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
This large painting depicts the Kishangarh ruler Savant Singh (r. 1748-57) and his beloved courtesan Bani Thani cruising on Lake Gundalao in the royal barge on a moonlit night accompanied by female musicians and attendants with the Kishangarh palace and gardens shown in the background. The distinctive aquiline profiles and exaggerated almond-shaped eyes of the delicately portrayed royal couple are a hallmark of Kishangarh painting of this period.
In addition to its historical imagery, such representations of Savant Singh and Bani Thani are also interpreted as allegorical portraits of the Hindu god Krishna and his favored paramour Radha. Here, the bejeweled couple's inferred divinity is indicated by their halos and the subtle blue skin tone of Savant Singh that associates him with Krishna, the blue-skinned god. In this context, the painting also illustrates the poetic verses of Savant Singh written under his nom de plume of Nagari Das. In his Bihari Chandrika composed in 1731, Krishna and Radha are described as rapturously boating at sunset on the Jamuna River in pastoral Vrindavan.
