Bring your favorites together in your free personal gallery.
Your galleryJain Ascetic Walking Along a Riverbank
Look first
- What catches your attention?
- Where does your eye go next?
- What would you ask about this work?
Show me
Look above the palm tree for a later inscription that wrongly credits the Persian master Bihzad, then find the red book cover showing through the monk’s white robe.
Akbar was curious about Jainism and admired the Jain monks who came to his weekly discussions among followers of different faiths; this portrait was made for his collection. Dressed in white, the monk carries a manuscript in a red cover, with his whisk broom, staff and pot. A half-erased inscription, perhaps in the large hand of Akbar’s son Jahangir, names Basavana and a sitter whose name ends in -chandra, probably one of four Jain monks so named at the Mughal court.
gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper · Painting: 14.7 x 9.8 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art
Look again
What do you notice now?
Try a quick sketch
Take a minute to sketch on any paper. No upload needed.
What did you draw first? What did you leave out?
Details and source
- Museum title
- Jain Ascetic Walking Along a Riverbank
- Artist
- Basavana (Indian, active c. 1560–1600)
- Date
- c. 1600
- Medium
- gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Dimensions
- Painting: 14.7 x 9.8 cm (5 13/16 x 3 7/8 in.); Overall: 38.8 x 26.3 cm (15 1/4 x 10 3/8 in.)
- Credit line
- Severance and Greta Millikin Collection
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.