id: 145942 accession number: 1971.15 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1971.15 updated: 2023-03-22 14:08:03.499000 Gateway Bracket, AD 150–200. India, Mathura, Kushan period (AD 1-320). Sandstone; overall: 73.9 x 57.2 cm (29 1/8 x 22 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1971.15 title: Gateway Bracket title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: AD 150–200 creation date earliest: 150 creation date latest: 200 current location: 242A Ancient India creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: --- culture: India, Mathura, Kushan period (AD 1-320) technique: sandstone department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art collection: Indian Art - Kushan, Mathura type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 73.9 x 57.2 cm (29 1/8 x 22 1/2 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Materials of the Artist opening date: 1958-03-04T05:00:00 Materials of the Artist. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-December 12, 1958). title: Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India opening date: 1985-11-13T05:00:00 Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 13, 1985-January 5, 1986). title: Buddha in India opening date: 1995-04-02T05:00:00 Buddha in India. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (organizer) (April 2-July 16, 1995). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE (William H. Wolff [1906-1991], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: ?–1971 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1971– footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: Gateways leading into a sacred area often had large horizontal architraves, the weight of which was supported by brackets carved with figures of voluptuous women grasping the branch of a tree. They embody the ideal form of the young mother, with breasts full of nourishing milk. As personifications of the sap that pervades living plants, they are auspicious markers of life and abundance. These attractive figures, who embody the purifying water essential for life, symbolically cleanse visitors as they enter the sacred space. On both sides of this large bracket they grasp the branch of an ashoka tree, which has clusters of flowers that are bright red in nature. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Fricke, Berthold. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Hannover: Knorr & Hirth, 1970. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 89 url: Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1971." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no. 1 (1972): 3-46. page number: Mentioned: no. 180, p. 47; p. 4; Reproduced: no. 180, p. 24 url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152412 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: Mentioned and Reproduced: Cover and frontispiece; pp. 82-83; p. 93, figs. 18 and 19; p. 94, fig. 20 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. 289 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n309 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: cat. no. 35, p. 99 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 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. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 120-121 url: Morris, Rekha, "Sense and Sensitivity: Sherman Lee's Impact on the Collection of North Indian Sculpture at the Cleveland Museum of Art," Orientations, vol. 36, no.1, pp. 88-93. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 89 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1971.15/1971.15_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1971.15/1971.15_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1971.15/1971.15_full.tif