The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 30, 2022

Alms Bowl

c. 900s

Japan, Heian period

(794–1185)

Gilt bronze

Overall: 12.8 x 23.8 cm (5 1/16 x 9 3/8 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1949.156

Location

not on view

Description

Alms bowls used by Buddhist monks to receive donations have traditionally been made of iron or wood. This bowl, made of gilt bronze and decorated with incised designs of birds and flowers in roundels as well as butterflies, is instead a luxury item likely meant for a Buddhist altar, where it would have contained offerings for a Buddhist deity.

Provenance
?-1949
(Hollis & Company, Cleveland, OH, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1949-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Milliken, William M. “Important Acquisitions of Japanese Art.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 38, no. 9, 1951, pp. 211–217. Mentioned: p. 212 www.jstor.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 904 archive.org
Lee, Sherman E. Japanese Decorative Style. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1961. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 19 archive.org
Feddersen, Martin. Japanese Decorative Art, A Handbook for Collectors and Connoisseurs. London: Faber and Faber, 1962. Reproduced: fig. 76
Rosenfield, John M. Japanese Arts of the Heian Period, 794-1185. [New York]: Asia Society, 1967. Reproduced: pp. 92 and 123, cat. no. 41
Grossman, Nancy, James T. Ulak, Marjorie Williams, and Laurence Channing. Art of Japan: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2005. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 23
Exhibition history

Japanese Arts of the Heian Period: 794-1185. Asia House Gallery, New York City, NY (October 5-December 17, 1967) and Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (January 17-February 25, 1968).

Japanese Decorative Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art (August 30-October 15, 1961).

Japanese Arts of the Heian Period. The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (organizer) (October 5, 1967-February 19, 1968).

Japanese Gallery 235 Rotation - January-July 2017. The Cleveland Museum of Art (January 9-July 10, 2017).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1949.156