id: 123438
accession number: 1943.661
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1943.661
updated: 2023-03-08 11:50:25.065000
Naga (Serpent Divinity), AD 300s. India, Mathura, Kushan period (c. 80-375). Sandstone; overall: 67.3 cm (26 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1943.661
title: Naga (Serpent Divinity)
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: AD 300s
creation date earliest: 300
creation date latest: 399
current location: 242A Ancient India
creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
copyright:
---
culture: India, Mathura, Kushan period (c. 80-375)
technique: sandstone
department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
collection: Indian Art - Kushan, Mathura
type: Sculpture
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
---
CREATORS
---
measurements: Overall: 67.3 cm (26 1/2 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
inscriptions:
---
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
---
LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 13, 1985-January 15, 1986), Asia Society Galleries, New York, NY (February 13-April 6, 1986), and Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA (May 13-July 13, 1986).
---
PROVENANCE
(Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
date: ?-1943
footnotes:
citations:
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 1943-
footnotes:
citations:
---
fun fact:
digital description:
The coils of a serpent's body and the bottle of water in his hand confirm the identity of this figure as a water serpent divinity called a naga. Nagas continue to be important divinities in local piety, for they control the forces of water, essential for prosperity.
wall description:
The coils of a serpent's body and the bottle of water in his hand confirm the identity of this figure as a water serpent divinity called a naga. Nagas continue to be important divinities in local piety, for they control the forces of water, essential for prosperity. Naga shrines were typically established by any body of water, and Buddhist monuments invariably included a naga shrine within the compound.
The soft swelling of the fleshy body, the gentle curvature of the waist band, and the single elegant necklace are all features that mark the transition to the more naturalistic qualities of sculptures made during the fifth century in the Gupta period.
---
RELATED WORKS
---
CITATIONS
Codrington, Kenneth de Burgh, and William Rothenstein. Ancient India from the Earliest Times to the Guptas with Notes on the Architecture and Sculpture of the Mediæval Period. London: E. Benn, Limited, 1926.
page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: pl. 22D
url:
Hollis, Howard. “Three Indian Buddhist Sculptures.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 31, no. 3, 1944, pp. 33–37.
page number: Reproduced: p. 36
url: www.jstor.org/stable/25141113
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 748
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n135
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page number: Reproduced: p. 229
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n253
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page number: Reproduced: p. 229
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n253
Czuma, Stanislaw. “Mathura Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum Collection.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 64, no. 3, 1977, pp. 83–114.
page number: Reproduced: p. 87, fig. 5
url: www.jstor.org/stable/25152680
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page number: Reproduced: p. 288
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n308
Pal, Pratapaditya. “A Kushān Indra and Some Related Sculptures.” Oriental Art, vol. 25,no. 2 (Summer 1979): pp. 213-230.
page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 19, p. 222
url:
Czuma, Stanislaw J. and Rekha Morris. Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1985.
page number: Reproduced: cat. no. 27, p. 88
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.
page number: Reproduced: p. 15
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1991/page/n30
---
IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.661/1943.661_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.661/1943.661_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.661/1943.661_full.tif