The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Standing Buddha

Standing Buddha

591
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.)

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.
  • ?–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
  • "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 25152311
    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
  • 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).
    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).
    Year in Review: 1968. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 29-March 9, 1969).
  • {{cite web|title=Standing Buddha|url=false|author=|year=591|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1968.40