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:
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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:
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CREATORS
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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:
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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).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
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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:
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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.
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RELATED WORKS
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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:
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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