{
"data": {
"id": 135485,
"accession_number": "1958.474",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Scenes from the Life of Buddha, 100s CE. Pakistan, Gandhara, Kushan period. Schist; overall: 68 x 41.3 cm (26 3/4 x 16 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of George P. Bickford, 1958.474",
"current_location": "242A Ancient India",
"title": "Scenes from the Life of Buddha",
"creation_date": "100s CE",
"creation_date_earliest": 100,
"creation_date_latest": 199,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Pakistan, Gandhara, Kushan period"
],
"technique": "schist",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Indian and Southeast Asian Art",
"collection": "Indian Art - Kushan, Gandhara",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 68 x 41.3 cm (26 3/4 x 16 1/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.68,
"height_inch": 26,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.75,
"width": 0.413,
"width_inch": 16,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.25
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 309885,
"title": "Sacred India",
"description": "Sacred India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1985-January 12, 1986).",
"opening_date": "1985-11-05T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 309889,
"title": "Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India",
"description": "Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 13, 1985-January 5, 1986).",
"opening_date": "1985-11-13T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "George P. Bickford [1901\u20131991] and Clara Louise Gehring Bickford [1903\u20131985], Cleveland Heights, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20131958",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1958\u2013",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "In this compact narrative relief, which was made to adorn a Buddhist stupa, scenes from the early life of the Buddha are depicted in order from top to bottom. His birth is at the top. The infant, now broken, is being received by Indra, King of the Gods, from the right side of his mother, who is depicted like a tree deity, grasping a branch with one hand. The baby Buddha miraculously took seven steps immediately after he was born, as indicated by the standing diminutive figure at the left of the scene. The next scene depicts the bodhisattva Maitreya, who will be the next Buddha to be born in the future, as an element of foreshadowing. Returning to the life of the historical Buddha, the sculptors then depict him as a prince, enjoying palace life with his wife. Eventually, he is compelled to leave his family to seek enlightenment and try to end the suffering in the world. In the lowest panel he rides off to the forest with a carved halo behind his head. In the border areas are meditating Buddha images, worshippers, guardians, and earth deities who drag a massive flower garland adorning the panel.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60759990"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1958.474-scenes-from-the-life"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Marcus, Margaret F. \u201cSculptures from Bihar and Bengal.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 54, no. 8, 1967, pp. 240\u2013262.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 254, fig. 13",
"url": "www.jstor.org/stable/25152173"
},
{
"citation": "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.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 101, p. 189",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Kim, Inchang. The Future Buddha Maitreya: An Iconological Study. New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 1997.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 109\u2013110, fig. 85",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Luczanits, Christian. \u201cThe Bodhisattva with the Flask in Gandharan Narrative Scenes: In Memoriam Maurizio Taddei.\u201d East and West, vol. 55, no. 1/4, 2005, pp. 163\u2013188.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 167, fig. 2",
"url": "www.jstor.org/stable/29757643"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1958.474",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.474/1958.474_web.jpg",
"width": "696",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "114249",
"filename": "1958.474_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.474/1958.474_print.jpg",
"width": "2649",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "1387462",
"filename": "1958.474_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.474/1958.474_full.tif",
"width": "6000",
"height": "7699",
"filesize": "138610000",
"filename": "1958.474_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [
{
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.474/1958.474_alt0_web.jpg",
"width": "707",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "120838"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.474/1958.474_alt0_print.jpg",
"width": "2690",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "1664016"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.474/1958.474_alt0_full.tif",
"width": "6000",
"height": "7583",
"filesize": "136523828"
},
"date_created": "2013-03-08T20:24:26",
"annotation": ""
}
],
"creditline": "Gift of George P. Bickford",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 135485,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1958-12-19T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 100,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "100s CE",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 06:55:20.685000"
}
}