{
"data": {
"id": 145930,
"accession_number": "1971.14",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Vajrapani, 700s. India, Kashmir. Bronze with silver overlay and gum tempera; overall: 22 cm (8 11/16 in.); base: 12.8 cm (5 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1971.14",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Vajrapani",
"creation_date": "700s",
"creation_date_earliest": 700,
"creation_date_latest": 799,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"India, Kashmir"
],
"technique": "bronze with silver overlay and gum tempera",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Indian and Southeast Asian Art",
"collection": "Indian Art",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 22 cm (8 11/16 in.); Base: 12.8 cm (5 1/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.22,
"height_inch": 8,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.6875
},
"base": {
"width": 0.128,
"width_inch": 5,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0625
},
"No Extent Specified": {}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 220914,
"title": "Images of Enlightenment: Gems from Buddhist Art of Asia",
"description": "Images of Enlightenment: Gems from Buddhist Art of Asia. Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (September 26-December 15, 1998).",
"opening_date": "1998-09-26T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 216707,
"title": "Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure",
"description": "Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (April 5-August 17, 2003); National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC (October 19, 2003-January 11, 2004).",
"opening_date": "2003-04-05T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 202079,
"title": "Focus: Tantra in Buddhist Art",
"description": "Focus: Tantra in Buddhist Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 5-September 15, 2013).",
"opening_date": "2013-05-05T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 224028,
"title": "Collecting Paradise: Buddhist Art of Kashmir and Its Legacies",
"description": "Collecting Paradise: Buddhist Art of Kashmir and Its Legacies. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Evanston, IL (organizer) (January 13-April 19, 2015); Rubin Museum of Art, New York, NY (May 22-October 19, 2015).",
"opening_date": "2015-01-13T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 292529,
"title": "Himalayan Gallery 237 Rotation \u2013 November 2016-April 2017",
"description": "Himalayan Gallery 237 Rotation \u2013 November 2016-April 2017. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 7, 2016-April 10, 2017).",
"opening_date": "2016-11-07T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 307309,
"title": "Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism",
"description": "Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism. Rubin Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (February 1-July 15, 2019).",
"opening_date": "2019-02-01T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1971\u2013",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "A hole on the back once held a halo behind his head.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "The name Vajrapani means \u201che who holds (pani) the thunderbolt (vajra)\u201d in Sanskrit. Adopted by Buddhists as a protector not only in India and the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet, Vajrapani also was incorporated into art of China, Korea, and Japan. The attributes of the thunderbolt and the club were derived from images of Zeus and Hercules that travelers from the Mediterranean world brought to the region as early as the 320s BC.
This rare, early bronze image of Vajrapani visually conveys his power to overcome fear and obstacles to enlightenment, and for this reason he is invoked by Buddhist practitioners. He sits on a pedestal in the form of a rocky mountain populated with wild lions, and he has tamed poisonous snakes to use as ornaments.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79923796"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1971.14-vajrapani"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Lee, Sherman E. \u201cThe Year in Review for 1971.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no. 1 (January 1972): 3\u201346.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: no. 175, p. 47; Reproduced: no. 175, p. 25",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152412"
},
{
"citation": "Pal, Pratapaditya. \"Bronzes of Kashmir: Their Sources and Influences.\" Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 121, no. 5207 (October 1973): 726-49.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 747, fig. 16",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/41371150"
},
{
"citation": "Pal, Pratapaditya. Bronzes of Kashmir. Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1975.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 164, fig. 60",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Galeries nationales du Grand Palais (France), Re\u0301union des muse\u0301es nationaux (France), and Haus der Kunst Mu\u0308nchen. Dieux et de\u0301mons de l'Hima\u0302laya: art du bouddhisme lamai\u0308que : [exposition], Grand-Palais, 25 mars-27 juin 1977. Paris: Secre\u0301tariat d'E\u0301tat a\u0300 la culture, E\u0301ditions des muse\u0301es nationaux, 1977.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 35, pp. 88 and 90",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "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. 293",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n313"
},
{
"citation": "Pal, Pratapaditya. \"An Adorsed \u015aaiva Image from Kashmir and its Cultural Significance.\" Art International vol XXIV, no. 5-6 (January-February 1981): pp. 6\u201360.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and mentioned: fig. 24, pp. 44\u201345",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Schroeder, Ulrich von. Indo-Tibetan Bronzes. Hong Kong: Visual Dharma Publications, 1981.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: no. 18B, p. 122; Reproduced: p. 123",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Klimburg-Salter, Deborah E., and Maximilian Klimburg. The Silk Route and the Diamond Path: Esoteric Buddhist Art on the Trans-Himalayan Trade Routes. Los Angeles, Calif: Published under the sponsorship of the UCLA Art Council, 1982.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 106, pl. 33",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Czuma, Stanislaw. \"A Unique Addition to the School of Kashmiri Ivories.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 8 (1988): 298\u2013319.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 309, fig. 17",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25160044"
},
{
"citation": "Reedy, Chandra L. Himalayan Bronzes: Technology, Style, and Choices. Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 1997.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 157, fig K49",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Ghose, Rajeshwari, Puay-peng Ho, and Chuntang Yang. Fa xiang chuan zhen: gu dai fo jiao yi shu [\u6cd5\u76f8\u50b3\u771f : \u53e4\u4ee3\u4f5b\u6559\u517f\u8853; In the footsteps of the Buddha: an iconic journey from India to China]. Hong Kong: Xianggang da xue mei shu bo wu guan, 1998.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 30, p. 189",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Ghose, Rajeshwari. \"In the Footsteps of the Buddha - An Iconic Journey from India to China.\" Orientations, October 1998, Vol. 29 Issue 9, pp. 108\u2013109",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 108",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Davidson, Ronald M. Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 2",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Pal, Pratapaditya, Amy Heller, Oskar von Hinu\u0308ber, and Gautamavajra Vajra\u0304ca\u0304rya. Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure. Chicago, IL: Art Institute of Chicago in association with University of California Press and Mapin Pub, 2003.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 59, p. 101",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Johnson, Ken. \"'Collecting Paradise' at the Rubin: A Curious Case of Divergence.\" The New York Times, July 3, 2015.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Debreczeny, Karl. Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism. New York, NY: Rubin Museum of Art, 2019.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: fig. 2.7, pp. 53, 62\u201363",
"url": null
}
],
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"date_created": "2012-08-10T14:52:38",
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"creditline": "Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 145930,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1971-02-23T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 700,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "700s",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
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"record_type": "object",
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"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Seated Vajrapani: Thunderbolt Bearer"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 07:28:49.870000"
}
}