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Alternate Views

Jul 6, 2006

Aug 27, 2013

Standing Buddha

591

Northern India, Uttar Pradesh

Bronze

Overall: 46.5 x 15.4 x 13.4 cm (18 5/16 x 6 1/16 x 5 1/4 in.); without base: 35 x 13.8 x 10.5 cm (13 3/4 x 5 7/16 x 4 1/8 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1968.40

Location

243 Indian and Southeast Asian

Did you know?

Around the time when this sculpture was made, portable bronzes began to replace relics as the principal sacred commodity circulating in the Buddhist world.

Description

This bronze Buddha is exceptional, because it carries an inscription on its base that dates its manufacture to the year 591. According to the inscription, the sculpture was dedicated by a nun who was from a village in Nepal, but she probably commissioned it at a workshop in northern India.

The Buddha's robe on this image has been left plain, without pleat lines to obscure the beauty of the contours of the body. Only the rippling scalloped clusters of the garment’s hem lend some sense of energy and subtle ornament to the composition.

Inscriptions

Inscription

1. ṹ deyadharmmoyaṃ laḍitagrāme yaṃgvalvihāre śā[kya] bhikṣuṇyā 2. pariśuddhamatyā yadattra puṇyaṃ tadbhavatu sarvvasatvānā- 3. manuttarasarvva jñānāvāptaye/ / saṃvat 4a. 500 10 3/ / caityakūta jinabandhuvihārapūrvva-bhuddeśe 4b. piṇḍakena bhojanaṃ karttavya*/ / *Mistake for karttavyam

Inscription Translation

This [image] is the pious gift of the Shakya nun Parishuddamati who lives in the Yamgval convent in Laditagrama. Whatever merit there may be in this [deed], may it lead to the attainment of supreme enlightenment of all sentient beings. Samvat 513 (AD 591). A feast should be provided [from the proceeds of] pindaka at the locale east of the Chaityakuta Jinabandhu monastery.

Inscription Remark

Gautama Vajracharya (at LACMA 1975) once offered an alternate interpretation of the last line: "(It is the wish) that (a certain ascetic) Purnnaka, belonging to the monastery in the locality of Chaityakuta, should be fed."

Provenance

?–1965

Unknown, Kathmandu, sold to Bombay dealer Lalbhai Dur Lama

1965–? by 1968

(Lalbhai Dur Lama, Bombay, India, sold to Isidor Kahane)

? after 1965–1968

(I. Kahane, Inc., Zürich, Switzerland, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1968–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

"Back Matter." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 55, no. 10 (1968). Reproduced: back cover www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 231 archive.org

"Art of Asia Recently Acquired by American Museums, 1968." Archives of Asian Art 23 (1969): 58-87. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 62, fig. 14

Czuma, Stanislaw. “A Gupta Style Bronze Buddha.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 57, no. 2, 1970, pp. 55–67. Reproduced: Cover; fig. 8, p. 58; fig. 12, p. 60; fig. 13, pp. 62–63; fig. 15, p. 66 www.jstor.org

Czuma, Stanislaw. "Addenda: A Gupta Style Bronze Buddha." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 57, no. 4 (1970). Mentioned: p. 127 www.jstor.org

Slusser, Mary Shepherd, and Gautamvajra Vajracharya. "On the Antiquity of Nepalese Metalcraft." Archives of Asian Art 29 (1975): 80-95. Reproduced: fig. 5, p. 83 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 290 archive.org

Schroeder, Ulrich von. Indo-Tibetan Bronzes. Hong Kong: Visual Dharma Publications, 1981. Mentioned: no. 74E, p. 304; Reproduced: p. 305

Slusser, Mary Shepherd. Nepal Mandala: A Cultural Study of the Kathmandu Valley. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 287, fig. 448

Deva, Krish “The Golden Age of the Guptas” in Indian Bronze Masterpieces: The Great Tradition: Specially Published for the Festival of India. Karl J. Khandalavala, Asharani Mathur, and Sonya Singh, eds. New Delhi: Specially published on behalf of the Festival of India by Brijbasi Printers, 1988. pp. 35-45

Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Reproduced: pp. 130-131

Sharma, Deo Prakash, and Madhuri Sharma. Early Buddhist Metal Images of South Asia: With Special Reference to Gupta-Vakatakas Period. Delhi: Bharatiya Kala Prakashan, 2000. Reproduced: fig. 41, p. 103

Czuma, Stanislaw, "Great Acquisitions and Southeast Asian Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art," Orientations, An Issue in Honour of Sherman E. Lee (Jan/Feb 2005), vol. 36, no. 1. Reproduced: p. 39, fig. 5

Pal, Pratapaditya, and Siddharth K. Bhansali. The Elegant Image: Bronzes from the Indian Subcontinent in the Siddharth K. Bhansali Collection. Mumbai: Marg Foundation, 2011. p. 36

Bidwell, Frederick E. and Leslie Cade. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art; New York, NY: Scala Arts Publishers, 2014. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 203

Graldi, Aurora. "Travelling Icons and Travelling Donors: A Metal Buddha Image in The Cleveland Museum of Art." Orientations, volume 49, number 1 (January/February 2018), pp. 96–102. Mentioned: pp. 96–102

Guy, John. "Parading Buddha in the Post-Gupta Age: A Newly Discovered Masterpiece of Indian Bronze Sculpture." Orientations 47, no. 2 (March 2018): 102-112.
Reproduced: p. 105

Schorsch, Deborah, Lawrence Becker, and Federico Caro. " Enlightened Technology: casting Divinity in the Gupta Age." Arts of Asia vol. 49, no. 2 (March-April 2019): 131–143. Reproduced: fig. 7

Exhibition history

Year in Review: 1968. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 29-March 9, 1969).

The Ideal Image: The Gupta Sculptural Tradition and Its Influence. Asia House Galleries, New York City, NY (organizer) (October 5-December 3, 1978); Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX (January 1-February 25, 1979); The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (March 24-May 6, 1979).

Streams and Mountains Without End: Asian Art and the Legacy of Sherman E. Lee at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 27-August 23, 2009).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Standing Buddha|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1968.40|year=591|access-date=27 May 2022|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Standing Buddha

Standing Buddha

Northern India, Uttar Pradesh

Location

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Description

Inscription

Inscription Translation

Inscription Remark

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