The Cleveland Museum of Art (spacer)
Special Exhibitions 		(spacer) (separator) (spacer) (spacer)
Jeweled Arts of India 		(spacer)
(spacer)
"Treasury of the World"

Highlights of The al-Sabah Collection

Explore The Jeweled Arts of India


Dagger
Dagger
LNS 70 HS
Blade of jawhar steel; hilt carved from nephrite jade (two pieces, both translucent white, the upper in particular absolutely pure)
Length 383 mm; width 96 mm
India, Deccan or Mughal, c. 1st half 17th century AD
Photography by Edward Owen

Three-Dimensional Expressions

The Indian subcontinent is duly celebrated for its long and distinguished sculptural tradition. An intense feeling for the plastic and the sculptural suffuses all the arts, including the multitude of highly developed crafts. The objects in this section demonstrate this sense of the three-dimensional. From the abstract forms of vessels, archery rings, and other utilitarian objects, through the materialization of vegetal and animal forms in gem-set gold and carved ivory, emerald, rock crystal, chalcedony, and jade, they show how thoroughly the subcontinent's artists exploited-and its affluent classes patronized-artistically conceived forms for the adornment of life.

Page 8 of 13 | On the next page: Relief-Carved Ornament