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Right Elbow with Strut for Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan

c. 600

Part of a set. See all set records

Southern Cambodia, Takeo Province, Phnom Da

Sandstone

John L. Severance Fund 1973.106.c

Location

not on view

Did you know?

Gold earrings were once fastened to the sculpture using holes in the figure's earlobes.

Description

This masterwork of early Cambodian sculpture shows the Hindu god Krishna effortlessly holding aloft a mountain to protect his fellow villagers and herds from torrential storms sent by a jealous old god. It is one of eight monumental monolithic figures recovered from a two-peaked mountain in the floodplains of the Mekong River delta, on the outskirts of the ancient urban center of Angkor Borei.

Provenance

c. 1910–1920

Léonce Rosenberg [1879–1947], Paris, France

1920–1949

Adolphe Stoclet [1871–1949], Palais Stoclet, Brussels, Belgium

1949–1967

Michèle Leon-Stoclet [1932–1967], Brussels, Belgium, and Barcelona, Spain

1973–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Sotheby Mak van Waay B.V., Amsterdam. Collection Léonce Rosenberg, Paris, deuxième et dernière partie, Vente Publique. Le Mardi 1 Juin 1920. Lot 214.

Groslier, George. Arts et archéologie Khmers: Revue des recherches sur les arts, les monuments et l'ethnographie du Cambodge depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours. 2, 2. Paris: Sté des éd. géographiques, maritimes et coloniales, 1924. Mentioned: [no page number], descriptive caption facing Pl. XXX

Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. History of Indian and Indonesian Art. New York: E Weyhe, 1927. p. 183

Goloubew, Victor. Documents pour servir à l'étude d'Ajanta; les peintures de la première grotte. Paris et Bruxelles: G. Vanoest, 1927. p. 415

Parmentier, Henri. L'art khmèr primitif. Paris: G. Vanoest, 1927. Mentioned and Reproduced: vol. 1, p. 121 and fig. 84

Fischer, Otto. Die Kunst Indiens, Chinas und Japans. Berlin: Propyläen-Verlag, 1928. p. 226

Cuisinier, Jeanne. “Collections of Oriental Art in Belgium,” Indian Art and Letters New Series, Vol II, no. 2. London: The India Society, Second issue for 1928. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 81 and Plate E

De Coral Rémusat, Gilberte. “L'activité Archéologique Dans L'Inde Extérieure.” Revue Des Arts Asiatiques, vol. 10, no. 4, 1936, pp. 211–226. Mentioned: pp. 225-226 www.jstor.org

Cœdès, George. Inscriptions du Cambodge. Paris: E. de Boccard, 1937. Mentioned: Vol. II, p. 156

Visser, H. F. E. Asiatic Art in Private Collections of Holland and Belgium. Amsterdam: "De Spieghel" Pub. Co, 1948. Reproduced: pl. 198, no. 338, pp. 76-77, 476-477

Briggs, Lawrence Palmer. The Ancient Khmer Empire. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1951. p. 36

Rowland, Benjamin. The Art and Architecture of India: Buddhist, Hindu [and] Jain. [Baltimore]: Penguin Books, 1954. Mentioned and Reproduced: plate 155, p. 227

Dupont, Pierre. La statuaire préangkorienne. Ascona, Suisse: Artibus Asiae, 1955. Mentioned: pp. 40-41; Reproduced: Plate V-A

“The Year in Review for 1973.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 61, no. 2, 1974, pp. 30–79. Reproduced: p. 30; Mentioned: no. 182, p. 31 and 79 www.jstor.org

Czuma, Stanislaw. “A Masterpiece of Early Cambodian Sculpture.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 61, no. 4, 1974, pp. 119–127. Reproduced: pp. 117-127 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. 316 archive.org

Schwartzberg, Joseph E., and Shiva G. Bajpai. A Historical Atlas of South Asia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978. Reproduced: pl. II.D.6 30. Mentioned: p. 185

Pal, Pratapaditya. The Ideal Image: The Gupta Sculptural Tradition and Its Influence. [New York]: Asia Society in association with J. Weatherhill, 1978. Reproduced: p. 19, fig. 3

Czuma, Stanislaw. "The Case of the Buried Fragments." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Vol. 66, No. 7 (Oct., 1979), pp. 288-295. Mentioned: pp. 288-295; Reproduced: fig. 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10A-D, and back cover www.jstor.org

Turner, Evan H. Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. p. 179

Lee, Sherman E. A History of Far Eastern Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994. Reproduced: p. 265, fig. 328

Jessup, Helen Ibbitson, and Thierry Zephir. Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient Cambodia: Millennium of Glory. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1997. Reproduced: fig. 1, p. 160

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. 160-161

Czuma, Stanislaw J. "The Cleveland Museum's Krsna Govardhana and the Early Phnom Da Style of Cambodian Sculpture," Ars Orientalis supplement [Chāchājī; Professor Walter M. Spink Felicitation Volume]. 2000 supplement, pp. 127-135. Reproduced: p. 127, fig. 1; p. 128, fig. 3.

May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Reproduced: no. 102, p. 92; Mentioned: p. 119

Fontein, Jan. Chinese works of art from the Stoclet collection: 25 March-5 April 2003 : exhibition in New York at PaceWildenstein. London: Eskenazi, 2003. Reproduced: fig. 1, p. 6

Lavy, Paul Andrew. Viṣṇu and Harihara in the Art and Politics of Early Historic Southeast Asia. PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 2004. Mentioned: p. 228

Jessup, Helen Ibbitson. Art & Architecture of Cambodia. New York: Thames & Hudson Inc., 2004. Reproduced: p. 28, fig. 21; Mentioned: pp. 28-29

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. 82

Czuma, Stanislaw J. "A Quest for the Best: The Enduring Legacy of Sherman E. Lee," Orientations vol. 40, no. 5. Reproduced: p. 37, fig. 3

Dumoulin, Michel. Les Stoclet: microcosme d'ambitions et de passions. Bruxelles: Le Cri, 2011. p. 316

Franklin, David, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. Reproduced: pp. 64-65

Guy, John, and Pierre Baptiste. Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia. New York, N.Y.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned: pp. 146-149, cat. no. 72; Reproduced: p. 148

Narayanan, Vasudha. “The Hero at Play: Depictions of the Govardhana-Laia story in Khmer art.” Journal of Vaishnava Studies. Vol. 23, no. 2 (Spring 2015), pp. 131-147. Mentioned: pp. 134, 142

Porte, Bertrand. “Sculptures Transformées, Du Phnom Da Au Núi Ba Thê.” Arts Asiatiques, vol. 71, 2016, pp. 141–158. Reproduced: fig. 13 www.jstor.org

Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 35

Revire, Nicholas. “Dvaravatı and Zhenla in the seventh to eighth centuries: A transregional ritual complex" Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 47(3), pp 393–417. Reproduced: fig. 4.4

"Cleveland Museum of Art Embarks on Radical Reconstruction of Cambodian Krishna Statue." Western Association for Art Conservation. Newsletter. 40:1 (January 2018): 28. Mentioned: p. 28

Coe, Michael D., and Damian Evans. Angkor and the Khmer Civilization. [New York, NY]: Thames & Hudson, 2018. Reproduced: p. 96, fig. 26

Bassoul, Aziz. Splendour of Khmer Iconography: Ancient Cambodian Art of the 5th to the 13th Centuries in Major World Museums and Private Collections. Beirut: Cedar of Lebanon Editions, 2018. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 120-121, no. 53

Coe, Michael D. and Damian Evans. Angkor and the Khmer Civilization. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2018. Reproduced and Mentioned: no. 26, pp. 96, 298

Mace, Sonya Rhie. "Restorations and Reconstructions: Cambodian Art to and from Cleveland." Arts of Asia 48, no. 3 (May-June 2018): 57-67. Reproduced: p. 57, fig. 1

Mace, Sonya Rhie. “The Cleveland Krishna.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61 no. 4 (Fall 2021).
Reproduced: P. 5; Mentioned: P. 4-8

Edelstein, Beth. “Conserving Krishna." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 4 (Fall 2021): 9-10. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 9-10

Alexander, Jane. “A Virtual Polish for an Ancient Masterwork." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 4 (Fall 2021): 11-12. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 11-12

Mace, Sonya Rhie, Bertrand Porte, Choulean ANG, Pierre Baptiste, CHEA Socheat, Thierry Zéphir, Christian Fischer, Beth Edelstein, Collen Snyder, and Amaris Sturm. Revealing Krishna: Essays on the History, Context and Conservationof Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan from Phnom Da. Lewes, UK: D Giles Limited; Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2021. Reproduced: Cover, p. 14, p. 25, pl.6, p. 32, fig. 1, p. 35, fig. 2, p. 50, fig. 16, p. 51, fig. 17, p. 53, fig. 18, p. 60, fig. 20, p. 61, fig. 21, p. 72, fig. 31, pp. 82-83, figs. 39-40, p. 104, fig. 63

"Krishna Govardhana: A Journey to Cambodia." The Asian Art Newspaper: Monthly for Collectors, Dealers, Museums and Galleries 26 November 2021. asianartnewspaper.com

Exhibition history

Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia’s Sacred Mountain. National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC (April 30-September 18, 2022) https://asia.si.edu/exhibition/revealing-krishna-journey-to-the-sacred-m....

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Right Elbow with Strut for Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1973.106.c|year=c. 600|access-date=21 September 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Right Elbow with Strut for Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan

Right Elbow with Strut for Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan

Southern Cambodia, Takeo Province, Phnom Da

Location

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Description

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