The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 20, 2024

Miniature Head of a Bodhisattva

Miniature Head of a Bodhisattva

1–100 CE
red Sikri sandstone
Overall: 8.7 cm (3 7/16 in.)
Bequest of Mrs. Severance A. Millikin 1989.345
Location: not on view

Description

Against the backdrop of the large-scale monumental sculpture for which the Mathura school is noted, this miniature head may appear insignificant. However, it exemplifies on a much reduced scale the qualities of style and execution that parallels developments on monumental sculpture. It also reflects a certain freedom of treatment of facial details that clearly denotes that while the artist worked in a minor key, the creation was neither inconsequential nor a sequacious rendering of the major sculptural trends of large-scale sculptures from Mathura.

Although this head is small, a sense of volume and mass is conveyed by the bulky earrings, the protruding flowerlike cockade of the turban, and the reduction of linear detail in defining these ornaments and the facial areas. The unridged brows, the generous curves of the jawline and neck, and the soft modulations of the chin and cheeks belie the diminutiveness of the whole. At the same time, the large almond-shaped eyes and the compressed angularity of the upper lip individualize this pensive Bodhisattva head. The modeling and the turban type with the oversized cockade suggest it dates from the pre-Kaniska phase of the first-century sculptures from Mathura.
  • 1969–1989
    Severance A. [1895–1985] and Greta [Marguerite Steckerl] Millikin [1903–1989], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1989–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Czuma, Stanislaw J., and Rekha Morris. Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1985. p. 82, no. 22
    Catalogue of the Severance and Greta Millikin Collection. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1990. cat. no. 175, p. 90
  • The Severance and Greta Millikin Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 5-September 2, 1990).
    Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 13, 1985-January 5, 1986).
  • {{cite web|title=Miniature Head of a Bodhisattva|url=false|author=|year=1–100 CE|access-date=20 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1989.345