18th century

Kalkin: Tenth Avatar of Vishnu

A blue-skinned lord with a double-pointed sword leads his ornately caparisoned horse through a jungle landscape. Monkeys, goats, and a tiger frolic in the trees above, while the undulating lines below suggest they are walking next to a river. The subject matter of this painting is unknown, but it may depict the horseman Kalkin-the final incarnation (avatar) of the god Vishnu-or illustrate a raga (a mode of classical Indian music). The yellow and red border with a vinelike scroll was a convention also used by painters in the Malwa region of central India during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.