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Jan 25, 2007

Mar 28, 2007

Mar 9, 2007

Ganesha

c. 1070

South India, Medieval period, Chola dynasty

(10th-13th century)

Bronze

Overall: 50.8 x 25.4 x 17.8 cm (20 x 10 x 7 in.); Base: 23 x 18.3 cm (9 1/16 x 7 3/16 in.)

Weight: 19.278 kg (42.5 lbs.)

Gift of Katharine Holden Thayer 1970.62

Location

244 Indian and Southeast Asian

Did you know?

Ganesha pulls his own broken tusk in one hand, which he used as a pen to write the epic Mahabharata.

Description

Ganesha, the god of wealth and abundance, is an auspicious and revered Hindu deity. He removes obstacles and protects his worshipers. Numerous myths explain how Ganesha became an elephant-man composite, but the most popular version relates the story of how he was decapitated by his enraged father, Shiva, and restored to life through the intervention of his mother, Parvati. Shiva agreed to revive him with the head of the first creature encountered: an elephant. Ganesha's strength—his profound spiritual wisdom—contrasts with his weakness for sweets, as indicated by his pudginess and the sweet modaka he carries. In Ganesha, opposing forces exist in perfect harmony.

Video

Provenance

(J. J. Klejman, New York, NY)

?–1970

Katharine Holden Thayer [1898–1985], Cleveland, OH given to the Cleveland Museum of Art

1970–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

"Art of Asia Recently Acquired by American Museums, 1970." Archives of Asian Art 25 (1971): 91-120. Mentioned: P. 110; reproduced: P. 95, fig. 11 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. 299 archive.org

Wallbank, T. Walter, A.M. Taylor, and N.M. Bailkey. Civilization Past & Present. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foreseman, 1981. Reproduced: vol. 1, p. 200

Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 150–151

Davis, Richard H. “Wooden Flowers in the Museum: Reflections on a Decorated Nataraja.” Orientations 33, no. 9 (November 2002): 54–61. Reproduced: P. 56, fig. 5

Dehejia, Vidya, Richard H. Davis, Irā Nākacāmi, and Karen Pechilis. The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola Bronzes from South India. New York: American Federation of Arts, 2002. Reproduced: cat. no. 22, pp. 140–142

Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 43 no. 06, Summer 2003 Reproduced: cover archive.org

Czuma, Stanislaw J. “Great Acquisitions of Indian and Southeast Asian Art at The Cleveland Museum of Art.” Orientations 36, no. 1 (January 2005): 82–87. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 85-86

"Sacred Bronzes of Southern India." The Asian Art Newspaper: Monthly for Collectors, Dealers, Museums and Galleries Vol. 9, iss. 10 (October 2006): 12. Reproduced: P. 12

Branfoot, Crispin. "Processions and Presence: Bronze Sculptures from the Temples of Southern India." Arts of Asia Vol. 36, No. 6 (November/December 2006): 61-71. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 68, fig. 7

Dehejia, Vidya. Chola: Sacred Bronzes of Southern India. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2006. Reproduced: cat. no. 7, pp. 90-93

Locke, Adrian K. "Divine Beauty: Sacred Medieval Bronzes from Southern India." Minerva Vol. 18, No. 1 ( January-February 2007): 22-24. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 24, fig. 9

Exhibition history

Year in Review: 1970. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-March 7, 1971).

The Age of Bronze. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 13-October 17, 1982).

Images of the Mind. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 7-August 30, 1987).

Dance of the Gods: Indian Art Inspired by Music. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 24-December 8, 1996).

The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola Bronzes from South India. National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC (November 10, 2002-March 9, 2003); The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX (April 4-June 15, 2003); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 6-September 14, 2003).

Chola: Sacred Bronzes of Southern India. Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (November 11, 2006-February 25, 2007).

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).

Gallery One 2012. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2012-March 5, 2017).

Indian Gallery 242 Rotation – April-November 2017. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (April 10-November 6, 2017).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Ganesha|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1970.62|year=c. 1070|access-date=22 September 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Ganesha

Ganesha

South India, Medieval period, Chola dynasty

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