1525 (ca.), [Delhi-Agra region, India], Krishna Defeats Trinavarta, the Demon Whirlwind, from a Bhagavata Purana (Ancient Tales of the Lord) -- National Museum of Asian Art (Washington)

From the museum label for this painting: During his childhood in Braj, Krishna is simultaneously an adorable, blue-skinned boy and a powerful god. Here, the one-year-old Krishna leaps into a swirling tornado to save his village. After battling the whirlwind into submission, he appears a second time with his hair wildly tousled. He stands smiling at his foster mother, Yashoda, whose overwhelming love for Krishna is an inspiration for all Pushtimarg devotees.

 

From the label to the entire exhibition:

 

Monumental paintings on cotton cloth representing the deity Krishna as a seven-year-old are unique to the Pushtimarg tradition of Hinduism. Known as pichwais, from the Hindi word for "behind," they were displayed behind icons of the child-god. Both theatrical backdrops and embodiments of Krishna, pichwais evoke momentous events from the years when he lived on earth in a cowherders' village. Some also record important historical ceremonies and the spiritual leaders who designed them. All were made to delight Krishna and to engage devotees' emotions. Most were painted in Nathdwara, Rajasthan state, in India, the global epicenter of the Pushtimarg community, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

 

After a three-year program of conservation and study, fourteen pichwais from the National Museum of Asian Art collections are on view together for the first time since the 1970s. They are juxtaposed with court paintings that illuminate Krishna's mischievous charm along with mixed-media works that reveal the multisensorial context of the pichwais. Collectively, the artworks convey the philosophical and emotional resonance of the Pushtimarg tradition as well as the creative ingenuity of the artists of Nathdwara.

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