The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 20, 2023

Goddess Vajravarahi

c. 1040-c. 1310

Nepal

Unbaked clay and pigment

Overall: 63.5 cm (25 in.)

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1964.103

Location

237 Himalayan

Fun Fact

The wooden post is an original and would have been set into a sculpted corpse.

Description

This powerful red goddess dances vigorously and raises one hand that would have held a flaying knife, while the other once held a skull cup. Her bone skirt and garland of freshly severed heads complement the skulls that adorn her crown. Her eyes bulge, her brow furrows, and she bares her teeth. These attributes communicate her power to assist her followers in overcoming passions, ignorance, and fear. This is one of the earliest surviving images made of unbaked clay, using an iron armature and rope strings to support the ornament.

Provenance
?–1964
(Therese Margaret Clayton, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1964–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
“Annual Report for 1964.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 52, no. 6, 1965, pp. 141–166. Mentioned: p. 153 www.jstor.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 234 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. 234 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 298 archive.org
Slusser, Mary Shepherd. "Dry-Lacquer or Clay? Preliminary Notes on a Neglected Nepalese Sculptural Medium." Contributions to Nepalese Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1 (January 1996), pp. 11-33. Mentioned: pp. 11-33, Reproduced: fig. 1, p. 19
Slusser, Mary Shepherd. "Nepalese Unfired Clay Sculpture: A Case Study" Orientations, vol. 32 No. 7 (September 2001), pp. 71-80. Reproduced: p. 74, fig. 2
Exhibition history

Year in Review (1964). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 1964-January 31, 1965).

Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 24-November 16, 1975).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1964.103