The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 22, 2024

Buddha Calling on Earth to Witness

Buddha Calling on Earth to Witness

800s

Did You Know?

The donors kneel at the lower corners.

Description

This sculpture is one of a series that depict the Buddha at different scenes in his life. Here, he is at Bodhgaya, the place where he achieved enlightenment. At the top of the composition are the branches of the ficus tree with its heart-shaped leaves, under which he achieved enlightenment. His hand gesture indicates that he is calling upon the goddess of the earth to witness the moment. During the Pala period of the eighth through 12th centuries in medieval India, Buddhism dominated and flourished in major monastic universities. After the fall of the Pala dynasty, the numerous battles between small kingdoms vying for power caused the destruction of the Buddhist monasteries, and Buddhist monks fled with texts and movable art to Nepal, Tibet, and Southeast Asia, so that by the 14th century, Buddhism was eradicated in India.
  • ?-1935
    (Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1935-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Eastman, Alvan C. Catalog of the Heeramaneck Collection of Early Indian Sculptures, Paintings, Bronzes and Textiles. New York: Heeramaneck Galleries, 1934. Mentioned: cat. no. 14, pp. 10 and 29
    Hollis, Howard C. "An Indian Buddhist Stele." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 24, no. 9 (1937): 135-37. Mentioned: pp. 135–137 www.jstor.org
    Lee, Sherman E. Buddhist Art. Detroit Institute of Arts, Twenty-Fourth Loan Exhibition, October, 1942. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1942. Mentioned: cat. no. 19, p. 23; Reproduced: cat. no. 19, p. 46
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 753 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 232 archive.org
    Marcus, Margaret F. “Sculptures from Bihar and Bengal.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 54, no. 8, 1967, pp. 240–262. Mentioned: p. 246, fig. 5; Reproduced: pp. 247, 261 25152173
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 232 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 294 archive.org
    Bly, Linda. An Important 12th Century Tibetan Thanka in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Place of publication not identified]: [publisher not identified], 1991. Reproduced: illustration 2
    Connell, Timothy C., and Jackson J. Spielvogel. World Art Transparencies. Cincinnati: West Educational Pub, 1998. Reproduced: Acetate 27
    Fichner-Rathus, Lois. Understanding Art. Fifth edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998. Reproduced: no. 18- 29, p. 486
    Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 136-137
    Fichner-Rathus, Lois. Understanding Art. Sixth edition. Fort Worth: Harcourt College Publishers, 2001. Reproduced: fig. 20-28, p. 550
  • Sacred India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1985-January 12, 1986).
    Buddhist Art. Detroit Institute of Arts, Twenty-Fourth Loan Exhibition, October, 1942. Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 1942).
    Art: The International Language. The Cleveland Museum of Art (October 2-November 4, 1956).
    35th Anniversary Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-September 30, 1951).
    India's Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 2, 1949-January 22, 1950).
    The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
    The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).
  • {{cite web|title=Buddha Calling on Earth to Witness|url=false|author=|year=800s|access-date=22 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1935.146