{
"data": {
"id": 150036,
"accession_number": "1980.25",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Ascetic Holding a Skull, c. 500 CE. China, Northern Wei dynasty (386-534). Gilt bronze; overall: 19.4 cm (7 5/8 in.); figure: 18.1 cm (7 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1980.25",
"current_location": "241C Chinese Buddhist Sculptures",
"title": "Ascetic Holding a Skull",
"creation_date": "c. 500 CE",
"creation_date_earliest": 450,
"creation_date_latest": 550,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"China, Northern Wei dynasty (386-534)"
],
"technique": "gilt bronze",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Chinese Art",
"collection": "China - Northern Dynasties",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 19.4 cm (7 5/8 in.); Figure: 18.1 cm (7 1/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.194,
"height_inch": 7,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.625
},
"figure": {
"height": 0.181,
"height_inch": 7,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.125
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 304521,
"title": "Year in Review: 1980",
"description": "Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 24-July 19, 1981).",
"opening_date": "1981-06-24T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "International Exhibition of Chinese Art. Burlington House, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England (November 28, 1935-March 7, 1936).",
"opening_date": "1935-11-28T05:00:00Z"
},
{
"description": "Golden Gate International Exposition. San Francisco, CA (February 18-October 29, 1939). cat. no. 61",
"opening_date": "1939-02-18T05:00:00Z"
},
{
"description": "Fogg Museum of Art (1939\u201345).",
"opening_date": "1939-01-02T05:00:00Z"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Major General Sir Neill Malcolm [1869\u20131953], London, England",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "by 1935\u2013?",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(Spink & Son, Ltd., London, England, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20131980",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1980\u2013",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "This grimacing figure has a potbelly protruding between the hem of his short jacket and fringed skirt (dhoti).",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "The figure holding the skull has been identified as Mrgasirsa, who sought Buddha\u2019s teaching on how to determine the karma and transmigration of the arhats. Mrgasirsa appears with Vasistha in some of the wall paintings of the Mogao grottoes in Dunhuang.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60740753"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1980.25-ascetic-holding-a-sk"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Spendlove, F. St. George, ed. Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, 1935-6. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1935.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 552, pp. 39, 52",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Sir\u00e9n, Osvald. \u201cThe Sculptures in the Chinese Exhibition in London.\u201d Parnassus 8, no. 2 (February 1936): 4\u201339.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 5",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/771320"
},
{
"citation": "Davidson, J. Leroy. \u201cA Problem in Skulls.\u201d Parnassus 11, no. 1 (January 1939): 33\u201335.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 33",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/771773"
},
{
"citation": "Octagon vol. XVII, no. 1 (Spring 1980).",
"page_number": "p. 5",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Lee, Sherman E. \u201cThe Year in Review for 1980.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 6 (June 1981): 163\u2013219.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 202, no. 288; Mentioned: p. 218, no. 288",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159730"
},
{
"citation": "\u201cAnnual Report for 1980.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 7 (July 1981): 223\u2013266.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 235",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159734"
},
{
"citation": "Guo li gu gong bo wu yuan \u570b\u7acb\u6545\u5bae\u535a\u7269\u9662. Hai wai yi zhen. fo xiang [\u6d77\u5916\u907a\u73ce. \u4f5b\u50cf= Chinese art in overseas collections. Buddhist sculpture]. Taibei Shi: Guo li gu gong bo wu yuan, 1990.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 35",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Sun, Di \u5b59\u8fea, editor. Zhongguo liu shi hai wai Fo jiao zao xiang zong he tu mu [\u4e2d\u56fd\u6d41\u5931\u6d77\u5916\u4f5b\u6559\u9020\u50cf\u603b\u5408\u56fe\u76ee= Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Buddhist Statues in Overseas Collections]. Beijing: Wai wen chu ban she, 2005.",
"page_number": "vol. 1, p. 152",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1980.25",
"images": {
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"date_created": "2012-09-24T15:49:40",
"annotation": ""
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],
"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 150036,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1980-05-23T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 450,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 500 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 07:44:35.338000"
}
}