Collection Online as of February 8, 2023

Shamvara

c. 1100

Part of a set. See all set records

Cambodia, Angkor, 11th century

Bronze

Overall: 14.8 cm (5 13/16 in.)

Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1985.92.1

Location

243 Indian and Southeast Asian

Description

An extremely rare bronze of a tantric Buddhist deity depicts the trampling of the personifications of the afflictions that keep beings cycling around the world of samsara, moving from one unhappy birth, death, and rebirth to another. This male figure, a prominent form of a tantric Buddha in Tibetan Buddhism, is four-armed and probably once held a vajra and bell in his crossed hands.

Provenance

Douglas Latchford [1931-2020], London, UK

J. P. Yonan, London, UK

?-1985

(Spink & Sons, London, UK, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1985-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Octagon, Spink & Son Ltd. vol XXII.2, June 1985. p. 10

Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1985.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 73, no. 2, 1986, pp. 26–71. Mentioned: p. 71, no. 220; Reproduced: p. 42 www.jstor.org

Bunker, Emma C., and Douglas Latchford. Adoration and Glory: The Golden Age of Khmer Art. Chicago: Art Media Resources, 2004. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 148, p. 415

Exhibition history

The Year in Review for 1985. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 12-April 20, 1986).

Focus: Tantra in Buddhist Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (May 5-September 15, 2013).