id:			140094
accession number:	1964.103
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/1964.103
updated:		2023-03-20 20:41:08.843000

Goddess Vajravarahi, c. 1040-c. 1310. Nepal. Unbaked clay and pigment; overall: 63.5 cm (25 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1964.103

title:				Goddess Vajravarahi
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			c. 1040-c. 1310
creation date earliest:		1030
creation date latest:		1320
current location:		237 Himalayan
creditline:			Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
copyright:			

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culture:	Nepal
technique:	unbaked clay and pigment
department:	Indian and Southeast Asian Art
collection:	Nepalese Art
type:		Sculpture
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

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measurements: Overall: 63.5 cm (25 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:


inscriptions:

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		Year in Review (1964)
	opening date:   1964-12-08T05:00:00
	<i>Year in Review (1964)</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 1964-January 31, 1965).

	title:		Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture
	opening date:   1975-09-24T04:00:00
	<i>Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 24-November 16, 1975).

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

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PROVENANCE

	(Therese Margaret Clayton, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
	date: ?–1964
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: 1964–
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


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fun fact:
The wooden post is an original and would have been set into a sculpted corpse.

digital description:
This powerful red goddess dances vigorously and raises one hand that would have held a flaying knife, while the other once held a skull cup. Her bone skirt and garland of freshly severed heads complement the skulls that adorn her crown. Her eyes bulge, her brow furrows, and she bares her teeth. These attributes communicate her power to assist her followers in overcoming passions, ignorance, and fear. This is one of the earliest surviving images made of unbaked clay, using an iron armature and rope strings to support the ornament.

wall description:
This powerful red goddess raises one hand that would have held a flaying knife, while the other once held a skull cup. Her bone skirt and garland of freshly severed heads complement the skulls that adorn her crown. Her eyes bulge, her brow furrows, and she bares her teeth. These attributes communicate her ability to assist her followers in overcoming passions, ignorance, and fear. <br> <br>The wooden post is an original part of this sculpture, a rare example that survives in polychromed clay. The clay was mixed with straw and sculpted around an iron armature; rope strings were used under the clay to build up her ornaments, which were then painted.
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	“Annual Report for 1964.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>, vol. 52, no. 6, 1965, pp. 141–166.
	page number: 	Mentioned: p. 153
	url:		https://www.jstor.org/stable/25152054

	The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
	page number: 	Reproduced: p. 234
	url:		https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n258

	The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
	page number: 	Reproduced: p. 234
	url:		https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n258

	The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
	page number: 	Reproduced: p. 298
	url:		https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n318

	Slusser, Mary Shepherd. "Dry-Lacquer or Clay? Preliminary Notes on a Neglected Nepalese Sculptural Medium." <em>Contributions to Nepalese Studies</em>, Vol. 23, No. 1 (January 1996), pp. 11-33.
	page number: 	Mentioned: pp. 11-33, Reproduced: fig. 1, p. 19
	url:		

	Slusser, Mary Shepherd. "Nepalese Unfired Clay Sculpture: A Case Study" <em>Orientations</em>, vol. 32 No. 7 (September 2001), pp. 71-80.
	page number: 	Reproduced: p. 74, fig. 2
	url:		

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IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1964.103/1964.103_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1964.103/1964.103_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1964.103/1964.103_full.tif