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Baby Krishna Asking for Butter from Yashoda, from a Kalighat album
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
As the incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, whose followers recognize as the deity who creates and destroys the universe, Krishna was always eating. Like time itself, which ultimately consumes everything, Krishna eats so much his foster mother Yashoda cannot believe it. When she looks in his mouth, she sees the cosmos and realizes he is not an ordinary baby.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineBaby Krishna Asking for Butter from Yashoda, from a Kalighat album, c. 1890. Eastern India, Kolkata, Kalighat. Gum tempera, graphite, ink, and tin on paper; secondary support: 48 x 30 cm (18 7/8 x 11 13/16 in.); painting only: 45.7 x 28 cm (18 x 11 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of William E. Ward in memory of his wife, Evelyn Svec Ward, 2003.112
