id: 154769 accession number: 1989.346 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1989.346 updated: 2022-09-10 11:04:14.364000 Plaque with a Male Head, AD 100s. Pakistan, Gandhara, Kushan Period (1st century-320). Gray schist; overall: 7 x 7 cm (2 3/4 x 2 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Mrs. Severance A. Millikin 1989.346 title: Plaque with a Male Head title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: AD 100s creation date earliest: 100 creation date latest: 199 current location: 242A Ancient India creditline: Bequest of Mrs. Severance A. Millikin copyright: --- culture: Pakistan, Gandhara, Kushan Period (1st century-320) technique: gray schist department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art collection: Indian Art - Kushan, Gandhara type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 7 x 7 cm (2 3/4 x 2 3/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Severance and Greta Millikin Collection opening date: 1990-07-05T04:00:00 The Severance and Greta Millikin Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 5-September 2, 1990). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 13, 1985-January 5, 1986). --- PROVENANCE (Ulrich von Schroeder [b. 1943], Zürich, Switzerland, sold to Severance and Greta Millikin) date: ?–1977 footnotes: citations: Severance A. [1895–1985] and Greta [Marguerite Steckerl] Millikin [1903–1989], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 1977–1989 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1989– footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: This small schist plaque is decorated with the bust of a man. It may have been used in several different ways—for example, like the roundels with highly projecting heads that have been reproduced by Marshall as door knockers, reverse sides of hand mirrors, and so on. Although they are made of bronze, this does not preclude that this schist plaque may have been set in a metal mount. There is also a precedence for objects of this type among the Begram plaster emblemata and terracottas, which may have served for making molds in clay, from which the metal sculpture was then made. There is even a chance that the object may have been used as a lid on a vessel and that the projecting head of the image would serve as a handle. The bust is that of a middle-aged man with his hair pulled up in a chignon. His broad face reveals the somewhat pudgy, coarse features of a well-to-do individual. He wears a scarf around his neck, tied in a knot with loosely hanging ends, the same as one finds on some sculptures of attendants of Buddha in Mathura. This seems to imply either a secular personage or possibly a Bodhisattva. The bottom edge of the bust is decorated with a bead pattern. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS 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: fig. 77, pp. 159–160 url: Sengupta, Arputha Rani. Buddhist Jewels in Mortuary Cult: Magic Symbols. Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan, 2019. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: Vol. 1, P. 101-103, fig. 2.67 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1989.346/1989.346_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1989.346/1989.346_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1989.346/1989.346_full.tif