Markandeya Viewing Krishna in the Cosmic Ocean
1680
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1680
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Markandeya Viewing Krishna in the Cosmic Ocean is a 1680 unspecified by Unknown, a Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A sage floats in a dark, swirling ocean while a blue-skinned god appears inside a glowing ring of fire. Tiny figures and animals drift around them, lost in the endless water. This painting comes from a small Hindu kingdom in the Himalayan foothills. The artist used circles and waves to show the cosmic ocean—a place outside time where the world dissolves before being reborn. The sage, Markandeya, is doomed to live forever, watching creation cycle after cycle. To see more works like this, look up the Pahari kingdom of Basohli.
The anonymous court artist from a Hindu kingdom in the foothills of the Himalaya mountains has chosen a web of concentric abstract shapes to represent the cosmic ocean as the backdrop for this elegant, striking composition. The sage Markandeya received the dubious gift of immortality, so even after the destruction and dissolution of the world and all its creatures, he must carry on exhausted and alone through the cosmic ocean until the next world cycle begins. At one point in the darkness he saw a branch from a banyan tree floating on the ocean’s surface, and with awe he saw the infant…
Sherman E. Lee, who was the director of the Cleveland Museum of Art from 1958 until 1983, and his wife Ruth donated this painting.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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