The Rasikapriya is a treatise on rhetoric that poet Keshavdas composed in 1591 at the court of Orchha. Due to its relevance, the text was widely disseminated and was often illustrated in painting, as in this work.In the upper register, a few lines of text transcribe some verses from the third chapter of the treatise (III.19), which classifies different female characters, the heroines (nayika), who are categorised in adolescent, experienced, and mature. The adolescent heroine (mugdha) is the one in question: she sits on a throne in the upper register in the company of two attendants. In the lower register Krishna enters the scene conversing with a woman while another female figure eavesdrops from behind the trees. Although not reaching the same level of refinement, the style of the work reminds one of a famous page from the Gitagovinda dated circa 1655–60 in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 1985.398.12).

25 x 21 cm