The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Corner Railing Pillar with Drinking Scenes, Yakshis, and Musicians

Corner Railing Pillar with Drinking Scenes, Yakshis, and Musicians

100s CE
Overall: 80 x 22.9 x 24 cm (31 1/2 x 9 x 9 7/16 in.)

Did You Know?

The celestial musicians, who play a lyre, castanets, and a triangular harp, evoke bacchanalian connotations.

Description

This pillar reflects the influence of Greco-Roman culture on Indian art and the influence of Gandharan styles and bacchanalian themes on the art of Mathura. The pillar depicts female figures who, seemingly intoxicated, play instruments and dance. Two additional scenes are carved on the base. First, a hunchbacked woman pours wine for an obese male fertility figure (yaksha). The second scene probably illustrates the story of the horse-headed yakshi who ate her victims.
  • ?–1977
    (Wiener Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1977–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 289 archive.org
    Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1977.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 65, no. 1, 1978, pp. 2–43. Mentioned: no. 151, p. 43; Reproduced: no. 151, p. 30 www.jstor.org
    Buren, Geneviève de. La chronique des arts: principales acquisitions des musées en 1977. Lausanne: Gazette des beaux-arts, 1978. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 178, p. 38
    "Annual Report for 1977." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 65, no. 6 (1978): 177-215. Mentioned: p. 191 www.jstor.org
    Carter, Martha L. “The Bacchants of Mathura: New Evidence of Dionysiac Yaksha Imagery from Kushan Mathura.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 69, no. 8, 1982, pp. 247–257. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 247–250 25159785
    Neils, Jenifer. “The Twain Shall Meet.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 72, no. 6, 1985, pp. 326–359. Reproduced: p. 337, fig. 17 www.jstor.org
    Czuma, Stanislaw J., and Rekha Morris. Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1985. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 42, p. 111
    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. 118-119
    Czuma, Stanislaw J. "A Quest for the Best: The Enduring Legacy of Sherman E. Lee," Orientations vol. 40, no. 5 (June 2009), pp. 35-40. Reproduced: p. 35, fig. 1
    Peterson, Sara. An Account of the Dionysiac Presence in Indian Art and Culture. [unpublished manuscript] London, SOAS, 2011-2012. Reproduced: fig. V, p. 17
    Hofstadter, Dan. "Big Baby." Art & Antiques. February 2011, Vol. 34, Issue 2, pp. 64-73. Reproduced: p. 73
    Kim, Seungjung, "The Beginnings of the East-West Dialogue: An Examination of Dionysiac Representations in Gandharan and Kushan-Mathuran Art." In Beyond Boundaries: East and West Cross-Cultural Encounters, pp. 16-34. Michelle Ying Ling Huang, editor. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012. Reproduced: fig. 1-1, p. 32
    Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. Reproduced: pp. 44-45
    Carter, Martha L., Prudence Oliver Harper, and Pieter Meyers. Arts of the Hellenized East: Precious Metalwork and Gems of the Pre-Islamic Era. London : Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2015. Reproduced: fig. 1.8, p. 30
    Bracey, Robert. "Is It Appropriate To Ask a Celestial Lady's Age?" In Problems of Chronology in Gandhāran Art. International Workshop of the Gandhāra Connections Project, Proceedings of the First International Workshop of the Gandhāra Connections Project, University of Oxford, 23rd-24th March, 2017. Wannaporn Rienjang, and Peter Stewart, eds., 135-147. Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd., 2018. Mentioned: pp. 135-147; Reproduced: p. 135
    Sengupta, Arputha Rani. Buddhist Jewels in Mortuary Cult: Magic Symbols. Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan, 2019. Reproduced: Vol. 1, p. 152, fig. 3.54, P. 164, fig. 3.70a Mentioned: Vol. 1, pp. 154-155, 163
  • Gallery One 2012. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2012-March 5, 2017).
    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).
    Buddha in India. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (organizer) (April 2-July 16, 1995).
    Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 13, 1985-January 5, 1986); The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (February 13-April 6, 1986); Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA (May 13-July 13, 1986).
    The Twain Shall Meet. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 30, 1985-January 5, 1986).
    Year in Review: 1977. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1977-January 22, 1978).
  • {{cite web|title=Corner Railing Pillar with Drinking Scenes, Yakshis, and Musicians|url=false|author=|year=100s CE|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1977.34