The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Ascetic Holding a Skull

Ascetic Holding a Skull

c. 500 CE
(386-534)
gilt bronze
Overall: 19.4 cm (7 5/8 in.); Figure: 18.1 cm (7 1/8 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1980.25
Location: 241C Chinese Buddhist Sculptures

Did You Know?

This grimacing figure has a potbelly protruding between the hem of his short jacket and fringed skirt (dhoti).

Description

The figure holding the skull has been identified as Mrgasirsa, who sought Buddha’s teaching on how to determine the karma and transmigration of the arhats. Mrgasirsa appears with Vasistha in some of the wall paintings of the Mogao grottoes in Dunhuang.
  • by 1935–?
    Major General Sir Neill Malcolm [1869–1953], London, England
    ?–1980
    (Spink & Son, Ltd., London, England, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1980–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH
  • Spendlove, F. St. George, ed. Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, 1935-6. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1935. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 552, pp. 39, 52
    Sirén, Osvald. “The Sculptures in the Chinese Exhibition in London.” Parnassus 8, no. 2 (February 1936): 4–39. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 5 www.jstor.org
    Davidson, J. Leroy. “A Problem in Skulls.” Parnassus 11, no. 1 (January 1939): 33–35. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 33 www.jstor.org
    Octagon vol. XVII, no. 1 (Spring 1980). p. 5
    Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1980.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 6 (June 1981): 163–219. Reproduced: p. 202, no. 288; Mentioned: p. 218, no. 288 www.jstor.org
    “Annual Report for 1980.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 7 (July 1981): 223–266. Mentioned: p. 235 www.jstor.org
    Guo li gu gong bo wu yuan 國立故宮博物院. Hai wai yi zhen. fo xiang [海外遺珎. 佛像= Chinese art in overseas collections. Buddhist sculpture]. Taibei Shi: Guo li gu gong bo wu yuan, 1990. Reproduced: p. 35
    Sun, Di 孙迪, editor. Zhongguo liu shi hai wai Fo jiao zao xiang zong he tu mu [中国流失海外佛教造像总合图目= Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Buddhist Statues in Overseas Collections]. Beijing: Wai wen chu ban she, 2005. vol. 1, p. 152
  • Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 24-July 19, 1981).
    Golden Gate International Exposition. San Francisco, CA (February 18-October 29, 1939). cat. no. 61
    Fogg Museum of Art (1939–45).
    International Exhibition of Chinese Art. Burlington House, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England (November 28, 1935-March 7, 1936).
  • {{cite web|title=Ascetic Holding a Skull|url=false|author=|year=c. 500 CE|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1980.25