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Krishna with Radha in a Forest Glade: Folio from the Second Guler Gita Govinda Series
First generation after Manaku and Nainsukh
Not on view
In no other illustration for Jayadeva’s twelfth-century Gita Govinda are human emotions reflected in nature as vividly as they are in this series. The poem, one of the most important of the bhakti texts, explores the full range of human emotions through the story of the dalliance of Krishna and Radha. This scene portrays the first sensual engagement between the two lovers, which is set in a forest glade adjacent to the Yamuna River. It attests to the brilliance the painters achieved in capturing the various phases of love in their depictions of figures in natural settings. Nature, with its abundance of flowers, appears to be announcing the imminent consummation of their passion.
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