Royal Women Celebrating Diwali

c. 1760

Royal Women Celebrating Diwali, c. 1760. Northern India, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow. Gum tempera and gold on paper; image: 20.5 x 24.7 cm (8 1/16 x 9 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1971.82 Lined along the eaves, the top of the marble lattice railing, and the rims of the boats on the river are candles and butter lamps lit in celebration of a New Year festival. A princess on a golden armchair lights sparklers with her friends. In the boats and on the far shore men set off sparklers under the light of a magnificent firework display under the full moon.

The style of this work is typical of Mughal painting from the mid-1700s, when scenes of domestic life among women of the court were a favorite subject for the imperial artists. "Diwali" comes from the Sanskrit words dīpa (lamp) and āvali (rows or series).