The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 25, 2023

Head of Buddha

AD 400s

Northern India, Mathura, Gupta Period

(320-647)

Sandstone

Overall: 30.6 x 16.6 cm (12 1/16 x 6 9/16 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1963.504

Location

243 Indian and Southeast Asian

Description

During the 5th century, sculptors in the city of Mathura achieved a balance between fleshy volumes and idealized linear features. The lines of the brows arch with tension and alertness, though the lids are half closed. His hair is rendered in short curls all over the head and the cranial protuberance, which during this period came to be interpreted as a mark of one who has reached enlightenment, his state of awareness having surpassed the boundaries of an ordinary human being.

Provenance
?–1963
(Jean-Pierre Dubosc [1903-1988], Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1963–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review for 1963.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 50, no. 10, 1963, pp. 263–294. Mentioned: p. 292, no. 67 www.jstor.org
Kramer, Joellen. “A Buddha Head from Mathurā.” The Burlington Magazine (March 1965). Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 76, p. 161
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 230 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 230 archive.org
Czuma, Stanislaw. “Mathura Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum Collection.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 64, no. 3, 1977, pp. 83–114. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 102, fig. 30 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
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. 128–129
May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Mentioned: no. 97, p. 119; Reproduced: no. 97, p. 88
Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 202
Exhibition history

Year in Review (1963). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 27, 1963-January 5, 1964).

Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 11-October 10, 1965).

Asian Journeys: Collecting Art in Post-war America. The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (organizer) (February 10-August 9, 2009).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1963.504