{
"data": {
"id": 151879,
"accession_number": "1984.172",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Krishna asks for sweets, from a Sursagar of Surdas (Indian, c. 1480\u20131580), 1705\u201310. Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Mewar. Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper; overall: 36.5 x 25.4 cm (14 3/8 x 10 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Dr. Norman Zaworski, 1984.172",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Krishna asks for sweets, from a Sursagar of Surdas (Indian, c. 1480\u20131580)",
"creation_date": "1705\u201310",
"creation_date_earliest": 1700,
"creation_date_latest": 1710,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Mewar"
],
"technique": "Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Indian and Southeast Asian Art",
"collection": "Indian Art",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Overall: 36.5 x 25.4 cm (14 3/8 x 10 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.365,
"height_inch": 14,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.375,
"width": 0.254,
"width_inch": 10,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": null,
"inscription_translation": "[[recto, in upper margin]] Mommy, come on, make me grow a little. Then, when I'm big, I'll do my duty\u2014kill off every enemy. Milk, curds, butter, sweets, dried fruits\u2014give them all to me when I ask. Otherwise how can I rule the wrestling ring, hit the king and drag him away? How can I get stronger than anybody else, so no one is my equal? Surdas says, I swear it by my life: I'll sit on the throne of Mathura. It's mine!",
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": 1
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 309849,
"title": "Year in Review for 1984",
"description": "Year in Review for 1984. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 3-May 5, 1985).",
"opening_date": "1985-04-03T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 309885,
"title": "Sacred India",
"description": "Sacred India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1985-January 12, 1986).",
"opening_date": "1985-11-05T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Dr. Norman Zaworski [1920\u20132013], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20131984",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1984\u2013",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [
{
"id": 152014,
"description": "The Birth of Krishna, from a Sursagar of Surdas (Indian, c. 1480\u20131580), 1705\u201310. Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Mewar. Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper; image: 33.6 x 22.2 cm (13 1/4 x 8 3/4 in.); overall: 37 x 25.4 cm (14 9/16 x 10 in.); with mat: 49 x 36.3 cm (19 5/16 x 14 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Edwin R. and Harriet Pelton Perkins Memorial Fund, 1984.65",
"relationship": null
}
],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "In the hut at the lower left sits the blind poet, author of the verse at the top of the page.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "The heart of the scene is at the lower right, where the blue Hindu god Krishna as a boy is trying to persuade his foster mother Yashoda to give him more food. He is in the process of telling her that he needs extra treats so he can grow big to accomplish all the exploits depicted in the remainder of the page: herding cattle, killing demons, defeating wrestlers, and finally winning the throne of Mathura, as seen in the upper right where he sits crowned king in place of his evil uncle Kamsa.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60475291"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1984.172-krishna-as-the-destr",
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1984.172-krishna-asks-for-swe"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Turner, Evan H. \u201cThe Year in Review for 1984.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, no. 2 (April 1985): 163\u2013207.
Published as: Krishna as the Destroyer of Demons",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 206, no. 166; Reproduced: p. 183",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159897"
},
{
"citation": "Diamond, Debra, and Dipti Khera, eds. A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur. Munich, Germany: Hirmer Publishers; Washington, D.C.: National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, 2022.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: No. 58, p. 241; Mentioned: pp. 234, 244\u2013245, 346.",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1984.172",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1984.172/1984.172_web.jpg",
"width": "615",
"height": "900",
"filesize": "241914",
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"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1984.172/1984.172_print.jpg",
"width": "2322",
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"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1984.172/1984.172_full.tif",
"width": "4973",
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},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Gift of Dr. Norman Zaworski",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 151879,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1984-12-05T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1700,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1705\u201310",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Krishna as the Destroyer of Demons, page from Surdas's Sursagar",
"Krishna as the Destroyer of Demons, from a Sursagar of Surdas (Indian, c. 1480-1580)"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 07:50:26.599000"
}
}