The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Two identical, corroded bronze finials of a multi-headed serpent. The serpents look straight out, the central head the largest with a forked tongue sticking out and curves like eyebrows repeating in layers until they reach an overarching row of spikes that create the overall round shape of the serpent heads. Two more serpent heads flank on either side, getting smaller and partially cut off by the serpent head in front of them.

Pair of naga finials

1100s

Cambodia, probably Angkor

bronze
Overall: 29.2 x 15.2 x 15.2 cm (11 1/2 x 6 x 6 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1987.14
Location: 244 Indian and Southeast Asian

Description

When members of the royal family or priesthood traveled in a public festival procession or to a temple to make offerings or participate in a ceremony, they would be carried in a palanquin, or a covered litter. Portable objects of veneration, such as bronze images or a sacred fire, were also carried on palanquins. The palanquins had wooden poles, hanging seats or raised platforms, and bronze fittings cast in intricate forms and gilt, lending the palanquins a sumptuous quality.

The royal palanquins were typically fitted with multiheaded, serpent-shaped finials at the ends of the poles and corners of the elevated platforms.

Naga means serpent in Sanskrit, a language from India selectively appropriated by the Khmer in Cambodia. In their own indigenous mythology, the Khmer people trace their descent from a naga princess and a prince from the island of Java who journeyed to Cambodia. The naga remains a potent emblem for the Khmer nation to this day; it is ubiquitous on Cambodian monuments.
  • ?–1987
    (Natasha Eilenberg, Cornwall, CT, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1987–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1987.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 2 (February 1988): 30–71. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 70-71, no. 211 www.jstor.org
  • Reinstallation of “Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan”. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 12, 2024-November 2, 2025).
    Beyond Angkor: Cambodian Sculpture from Banteay Chhmar. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 14, 2017-March 25, 2018).
    The Cleveland Museum of Art (10/14/2017-01/07/2018): “Beyond Angkor: Cambodian Sculpture from Banteay Chhmar”
    The Year in Review for 1987. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-April 17, 1988).
  • {{cite web|title=Pair of naga finials|url=false|author=|year=1100s|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1987.14