Collection Online as of April 1, 2023

Seated Buddha

1000s

Painted wood

Overall: 54.6 cm (21 1/2 in.)

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1986.6

Location

237 Himalayan

Description

Eleventh-century western Tibet experienced a period of fervent reconstruction of Buddhist monasteries following the persecution of Buddhism during the 9th and 10th centuries. Art from Kashmir was avidly collected and copied as part of those reconstruction efforts. Kashmiri stylistic traits, such as the pinched waist and abdominal musculature seen in this rare wooden image, are from that critical time. The pioneering Italian Tibetologists Giusseppe Tucci and Egenio Ghersi discovered this sculpture during an expedition to Tibet from 1933 to 1935

Provenance

?-1986

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

1986-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 1986-present

Citations

"1992 Annual Report." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 6 (1993): 215-95. Mentioned: p. 247 www.jstor.org

Rhie, Marylin M., Robert A. F. Thurman, and John Bigelow Taylor. Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet. New York: Tibet House New York in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1996. Reproduced: cat. no. 136, p. 343

Exhibition history

Year in Review for 1986. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 4-March 15, 1987).

Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet. Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (September 18-December 13, 1992).

Asian Autumn: Later Korean Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 22, 1992-January 3, 1993).

Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet. Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, Germany (May 1-August 31, 1996); Fundació "la Caixa", Barcelona, Spain (October 1, 1996-January 12, 1997).

Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet. Dr. Sun-Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, Taipei (January 16-May 1, 1998).

Object in Focus: Toward a Definition of an Early "Western Tibetan" Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (April 24-June 24, 2001).