The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Horizontally oriented black-and-white photograph of the base of the Great Temple at Tanjore from the corner, showing the West and South sides. Two rows with square-columned niches are filled with statues of various Hindu gods, continuing up to the third layer with smaller niches carved with geometric patterns before extending beyond the picture. Where the temple meets the ground, the stone's brick pattern is swapped for a base of vertically oriented light and dark stripes.

West and South Sides of the Vimana Walls, Great Temple (Brihadeshvara) at Tanjore (Thanjavur)

1858

Captain Linnaeus Tripe

(British, 1822–1902)
England, 19th century
albumenized salt print from a waxed paper negative
Image: 27.4 x 36 cm (10 13/16 x 14 3/16 in.); Paper: 27.4 x 36 cm (10 13/16 x 14 3/16 in.); Mounted: 45.3 x 57.3 cm (17 13/16 x 22 9/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2020.210
Catalogue raisonné: Dewan: CR6-219
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

This is thought to have been the tallest structure in the world when it was constructed around 1000.

Description

The double-storied exterior base of one of the largest temples constructed and still standing on the Indian subcontinent is articulated with niches containing images of Hindu gods. Within these walls is an inner sanctum containing a monolithic linga (the phallic emblem marking the sacred presence of the god Shiva).

Tripe used waxed paper instead of glass negatives, possibly because he was concerned about breakage and weight. When printing the photograph, he laid the negative on a paper treated with a light-sensitive emulsion of sodium chloride (table salt) and silver nitrate and exposed it to light, to create a “salt print.”
  • Newberry Library Collection, Chicago, IL
    October 31, 1989
    (Sotheby's, New York, NY, October 31, 1989 sale)
    (Weston Gallery, Carmel, CA)
    Private Collection, United Kingdom
    2020
    (Prahlad Bubbar Indian and Islamic Art, London, United Kingdom, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    September 14, 2020–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Dewan, Janet, and Linnaeus Tripe. The Photographs of Linnaeus Tripe: A Catalogue Raisonné. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2003. CR6-219
  • Temples and Worship in South Asia. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 14, 2024-March 9, 2025).
  • {{cite web|title=West and South Sides of the Vimana Walls, Great Temple (Brihadeshvara) at Tanjore (Thanjavur)|url=false|author=Captain Linnaeus Tripe|year=1858|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.210