Collection Online as of January 27, 2023

Bacchanalian Relief

AD 1–100

Part of a set. See all set records

Pakistan, Gandhara, Buner area, early Kushan period

(AD 1–320)

Schist

Overall: 17.1 x 44.5 cm (6 3/4 x 17 1/2 in.)

Dudley P. Allen Fund 1930.328.1

Location

242A Ancient India

Description

Phrygians with their trousers, tunics, and conical caps play music, dance, and clap, while Greek figures drink from fluted cups filled with wine decanted from pitchers filled from a wine skin, shown hefted on the shoulders of the figure at the right. The multicultural diversity of the region became pronounced after Alexander of Macedon left a contingent of Greeks to rule the territories of present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. After the waning of the Hellenistic kingdoms in the first century BC, Scythians and Parthians from Central Asian and Iran took control of the region. By the first century AD, trade between the Roman Empire, India, and China had reached unprecedented levels, bringing wealth and international merchants to the area.

Provenance

?–1930

(Spink & Son, Ltd., London, UK, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1930–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Hollis, Howard. C. “Indian Sculpture.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 17, no. 10, 1930, pp. 190–198. Mentioned: pp. 190-93; Reproduced: p. 197 www.jstor.org

Stites, Raymond S. The Arts and Man. New York: Whittlesey House, 1940. Reproduced: fig. 416b, p. 501

Lyons, Islay, and Harald Ingholt. Gandhāran Art in Pakistan. [New York]: Pantheon Books, 1957. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 26, 160, pl. IV, no. 1

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned: cat. no. 740 archive.org

Rosenfield, John M. The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967. Reproduced: fig. 58

Fabri, Charles Louis. Discovering Indian Sculpture: A Brief History. New Delhi: Affiliated East-West Press, 1970. Mentioned: p. 45; Reproduced: pl. 19, p. 31

Goldman, Bernard. “Parthians at Gandhāra.” East and West, vol. 28, no. 1/4, 1978, pp. 189–202. Reproduced: fig. 1, between pp. 200-201 www.jstor.org

Neils, Jenifer. “The Twain Shall Meet.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 72, no. 6, 1985, pp. 326–359. Reproduced: p. 335, fig. 14 www.jstor.org

Czuma, Stanislaw J., and Rekha Morris. Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1985. Mentioned: pp. 172-174; Reproduced: cat. no. 87, p. 173

Masselos, Jim, Jackie Menzies, Pratapaditya Pal, and Reis Wenger Flora. Dancing to the Flute: Music and Dance in Indian Art. Sydney, Australia: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1997. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 50a, p. 107

Kurita, Isao 栗田功. Gandhāran art [ガンダ-ラ美術 = Gandāra bijutsu]. Vol. 2. The world of the Buddha [佛陀の世界 = Budda no sekai] Tōkyō: Nigensha, 2003. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 186, figs. 534 & 535

Exhibition history

Exhibition of the Month: Music in Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 2, 1945-February 4, 1946).

Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 13, 1985-January 5, 1986).

Dancing to the Flute: Music and Dance in Indian Art
. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (organizer) (June 12-August 24, 1997).