Location

not on view

Description

This remarkable, colossal sculpture depicts Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu, in one of the earliest sculptural representations known from Cambodia. He is shown in the act of performing the miracle of raising Govardhana Hill, in order to shelter the villagers and cows from the torrential downpours sent by Indra, king of the gods, who was angry at Krishna for having suggested that the villagers no longer give him sacrificial offerings.

Krishna was only seven years old when he performed this superhuman feat, so this sculpture depicts him with bare head, youthful features, and a short lower garment. Nonetheless, the extreme power of this child god is elegantly conveyed by the sculptors, for he appears to raise the mountain almost effortlessly.

Provenance

1920-1949

Adolphe Stoclet [1871-1949], Palais Stoclet, Brussels, Belgium, 1920-1949

?-1973

(Eugene V. Thaw [1927-2018], New York, NY, after 1949-1973, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1973-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 1973-present

Citations

Visser, H. F. E. Asiatic Art in Private Collections of Holland and Belgium. Amsterdam: "De Spieghel" Pub. Co, 1948. Reproduced: pl. 198, no. 338, pp. 76-77, 476-477

“The Year in Review for 1973.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 61, no. 2, 1974, pp. 30–79. Reproduced: p. 30; Mentioned: no. 182, p. 31 and 79 www.jstor.org

Czuma, Stanislaw. “A Masterpiece of Early Cambodian Sculpture.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 61, no. 4, 1974, pp. 119–127. Reproduced: pp. 117-127 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. 316 archive.org

Schwartzberg, Joseph E., and Shiva G. Bajpai. A Historical Atlas of South Asia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978. Reproduced: pl. II.D.6 30. Mentioned: p. 185

Pal, Pratapaditya. The Ideal Image: The Gupta Sculptural Tradition and Its Influence. [New York]: Asia Society in association with J. Weatherhill, 1978. Reproduced: p. 19, fig. 3

Czuma, Stanislaw. "The Case of the Buried Fragments." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Vol. 66, No. 7 (Oct., 1979), pp. 288-295. Mentioned: pp. 288-295; Reproduced: fig. 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10A-D, and back cover

Turner, Evan H. Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. p. 179

Lee, Sherman E. A History of Far Eastern Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994. Reproduced: p. 265, fig. 328

Jessup, Helen Ibbitson, and Thierry Zephir. Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient Cambodia: Millennium of Glory. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1997. Reproduced: fig. 1, p. 160

Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Reproduced: pp. 160-161

Czuma, Stanislaw J. "The Cleveland Museum's Krsna Govardhana and the Early Phnom Da Style of Cambodian Sculpture," Ars Orientalis supplement [Chāchājī; Professor Walter M. Spink Felicitation Volume]. 2000 supplement, pp. 127-135. Reproduced: p. 127, fig. 1; p. 128, fig. 3.

May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Reproduced: no. 102, p. 92; Mentioned: p. 119

Fontein, Jan. Chinese works of art from the Stoclet collection: 25 March-5 April 2003 : exhibition in New York at PaceWildenstein. London: Eskenazi, 2003. Reproduced: fig. 1, p. 6

Czuma, Stanislaw, "Great Acquisitions and Southeast Asian Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art," Orientations, An Issue in Honour of Sherman E. Lee (Jan/Feb 2005), vol. 36, no. 1. Reproduced: p. 82

Czuma, Stanislaw J. "A Quest for the Best: The Enduring Legacy of Sherman E. Lee," Orientations vol. 40, no. 5. Reproduced: p. 37, fig. 3

Franklin, David, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. Reproduced: pp. 64-65

Guy, John, and Pierre Baptiste. Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia. New York, N.Y.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned: pp. 146-149, cat. no. 72; Reproduced: p. 148

Coe, Michael D., and Damian Evans. Angkor and the Khmer Civilization. [New York, NY]: Thames & Hudson, 2018. Reproduced: p. 96, fig. 26

"Cleveland Museum of Art Embarks on Radical Reconstruction of Cambodian Krishna Statue." Western Association for Art Conservation. Newsletter. 40:1 (January 2018): 28. Mentioned: p. 28

Bassoul, Aziz. Splendour of Khmer Iconography: Ancient Cambodian Art of the 5th to the 13th Centuries in Major World Museums and Private Collections. Beirut: Cedar of Lebanon Editions, 2018. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 120-121, no. 53

Mace, Sonya Rhie. "Restorations and Reconstructions: Cambodian Art to and from Cleveland." Arts of Asia 48, no. 3 (May-June 2018): 57-67. Reproduced: p. 57, fig. 1

Exhibition history

Honoring Sherman Lee. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 28-August 30, 2009).

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan

Southern Cambodia, Takeo Province, Phnom Da, Pre-Angkorean period

Location

Description