{
"data": {
"id": 165154,
"accession_number": "2007.155",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Brahma-Shiva, 900s. South India, Tamil Nadu, Chola dynasty, late 10th - early 11th century. Granite; overall: 162.6 x 48 cm (64 x 18 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, this work was accepted in honor of Stanislaw Czuma in recognition of his long service to the CMA, 2007.155",
"current_location": "244 Indian and Southeast Asian",
"title": "Brahma-Shiva",
"creation_date": "900s",
"creation_date_earliest": 850,
"creation_date_latest": 1000,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"South India, Tamil Nadu, Chola dynasty, late 10th - early 11th century"
],
"technique": "granite",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Indian and Southeast Asian Art",
"collection": "Indian Art - Chola",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 162.6 x 48 cm (64 x 18 7/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 1.626,
"height_inch": 64,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"depth": 0.48,
"depth_inch": 18,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.875,
"length": 0.8,
"length_inch": 31,
"length_inch_fraction": 0.5
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 676976,
"title": "Reinstallation of \u201cKrishna Lifting Mount Govardhan\u201d",
"description": "Reinstallation of \u201cKrishna Lifting Mount Govardhan\u201d. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 12, 2024-November 2, 2025).",
"opening_date": "2024-10-12T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Exhibition of Hindu, Khmer, Chinese Sculptures and Early Chinese Bronzes. Wildenstein Galleries, New York, NY (1927).",
"opening_date": "1927-01-01T05:00:00Z"
},
{
"description": "Manifestations of Shiva. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (1981\u20131982).",
"opening_date": "1981-01-01T05:00:00Z"
},
{
"description": "Shiva and His Many Incarnations. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 24, 2007-March 5, 2008).",
"opening_date": "2007-06-24T04:00:00Z"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(C. T. Loo & Co., New York, NY, sold to Mrs. George A. [Lucie Matter] Forman [c. 1883\u20131952] for gift to the Albright Knox Art Gallery)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"Lucie Matter (c. 1883\u20131952) married George Alfred Forman (1875\u20131923). Mr. Forman was the founder, president, and principal stockholder of \"Southwestern Petroleum Company.\" Later after his death, she married Harry Blanchard Spaulding (1881\u20131955).
"
],
"date": "?\u20131927",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, deaccessioned and consigned to Sotheby's, New York for sale",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1927\u20132007",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "(Sotheby's, New York, NY, March 23, 2007 sale, Lot 27, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "March 23, 2007",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "2007\u2013",
"sortorder": 4
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "The back of the sculpture retains the original textured surface from a pointed chisel, suggesting it was in a niche or near a wall, protected from worshippers\u2019 touches.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "In the Hindu pantheon Brahma is in charge of carrying out the work of creation. In this tour-de-force of South Indian temple sculpture, he is in a special regal aspect, with the only elements of his typical priestly appearance being the prayer beads and the matted dreadlocks piled on his head.
Four arms connote superhuman power, and four heads convey the idea that his creative activities spread in all four directions. His upper right hand enjoins freedom from fear, and the lower holds a lotus bud associated with birth and the process of creation. His lowered left hand is held in the gift-giving gesture, suggestive of the gift of creation he will bestow upon the world.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60757898"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-2007.155-brahma",
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-2007.155-brahma-shiva"
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"citations": [
{
"citation": "O. C. Gangoly, \u201cSome Images of Brahma of the Chola Period,\u201d Rupam, Nos. 35-36, July-October 1928, pp. 29-30.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: fig. A",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Eastman, Alvan C. \u201cA Brahma Image of the X-XI Century.\u201d Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts of the City of Detroit, vol. 10, no. 3, 1928, pp. 34\u201336",
"page_number": "Reproduced: cover; Mentioned: pp. 34\u201336",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/41501157"
},
{
"citation": "Buffalo Fine Arts Academy Notes. vol. 21, no. 1 (May 1930).",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 4",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Buffalo Fine Arts Academy Notes. vol. 22, no. 1 (September 1930).",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 40",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Ritchie, Andrew Carnduff ed. Catalogue of the Paintings and Sculpture in the Permanent Collection. [Buffalo]: Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery, 1949.",
"page_number": "p. 154, no. 70",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Lippe, Aschwin. \u201cDivine Images in Stone and Bronze,\u201d Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 4, 1971, pp. 29-79.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: figs. 10-11, p. 38",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/1512615"
},
{
"citation": "Nash, Steven A., Katy Kline, Charlotta Kotik, and Emese Wood. Painting and Sculpture from Antiquity to 1942. New York: Rizzoli International Publications in association with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York,1979.",
"page_number": "pp. 90-91",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Kramrisch, Stella. Manifestations of Shiva. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1981.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 45, p. 54",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Sotheby's New York. Indian & Southeast Asian Art: Including Property of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. March 23, 2007.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: Lot 27",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Failing, Patricia. \"The Hard Sell?,\" ARTnews, vol. 106 no. 6 (June 2007).",
"page_number": "p. 55",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 47 (September 2007): 3-4.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: cover and pp. 3-4",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2007-07/page/2"
},
{
"citation": "Andrews, Isabel, John Mallet, and Samson Spanier. \"To Sell-Or Not to Sell\" Apollo: The International Magazine for Collectors, September 2007, Vol. 166, pp. 34-39.",
"page_number": "p. 38",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 47 (October 2007): back cover.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: back cover",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "\u201cArt of Asia Acquired by North American Museums, 2006-2008.\u201d Archives of Asian Art, vol. 58, 2008, pp. 137\u2013185.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 152, fig.9.",
"url": "www.jstor.org/stable/20542572"
},
{
"citation": "Franklin, David. \u201cRecent Acquisitions (2005\u201411) at the Cleveland Museum of Art.\u201d The Burlington Magazine, vol. 154, no. 1312, 2012, pp. 525\u2013532.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 527, fig. VI",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/23232806"
},
{
"citation": "Bidwell, Frederick E. and Leslie Cade. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art; New York, NY: Scala Arts Publishers, 2014.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: pp. 206-207",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Olivier, Virginie. \u201cLes \u00ab Brahm\u0101-\u015aiva \u00bb de La R\u00e9gion de Tanjore: Un Syncr\u00e9tisme Singulier Aux Origines Inexpliqu\u00e9es.\u201d Arts Asiatiques 75 (2020): 5\u201326.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 9, fig. 3",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/26996050"
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