id: 165154 accession number: 2007.155 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2007.155 updated: 2023-04-23 11:16:03.367000 Brahma, late 900s-1000s. 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 title: Brahma title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: late 900s-1000s creation date earliest: 975 creation date latest: 1100 current location: 243 Indian and Southeast Asian creditline: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund, this work was accepted in honor of Stanislaw Czuma in recognition of his long service to the CMA copyright: --- culture: South India, Tamil Nadu, Chola dynasty, late 10th - early 11th century technique: granite department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art collection: Indian Art - Chola type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 162.6 x 48 cm (64 x 18 7/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Exhibition of Hindu, Khmer, Chinese Sculptures and Early Chinese Bronzes. Wildenstein Galleries, New York, NY (1927). * 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 (1981-1982). * Shiva and His Many Incarnations. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 24,2007-March 5, 2008). --- PROVENANCE (C. T. Loo & Co. New York, NY, sold to Mrs. George A. [Lucie Matter] Forman [c. 1883-1952] for gift to the Albright Knox Art Gallery) date: ?–1927 footnotes: *
Lucie Matter (c. 1883-1952) married George Alfred Forman (1875-1923). Mr. Forman was the founder, president, and principal stockholder of "Southwestern Petroleum Company." Later after his death, she married Harry Blanchard Spaulding (1881-1955).
citations: Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, deaccessioned and consigned to Sotheby's, New York for sale date: 1927–2007 footnotes: citations: (Sotheby's, New York, NY, March 23, 2007, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: March 23, 2007 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2007– footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: 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’ touches. digital description: wall 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. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS O. C. Gangoly, “Some Images of Brahma of the Chola Period,” Rupam, Nos. 35-36, July-October 1928, pp. 29-30. page number: Reproduced: fig. A url: Eastman, Alvan C. “A Brahma Image of the X-XI Century.” Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts of the City of Detroit, vol. 10, no. 3, 1928, pp. 34–36 page number: Reproduced: cover; Mentioned: pp. 34–36 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41501157 Buffalo Fine Arts Academy Notes. vol. 21, no. 1 (May 1930). page number: Reproduced: p. 4 url: Buffalo Fine Arts Academy Notes. vol. 22, no. 1 (September 1930). page number: Reproduced: p. 40 url: 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: Lippe, Aschwin. “Divine Images in Stone and Bronze,” Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 4, 1971, pp. 29-79. page number: Reproduced: figs. 10-11, p. 38 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1512615 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: Kramrisch, Stella. Manifestations of Shiva. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1981. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 45, p. 54 url: 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: Failing, Patricia. "The Hard Sell?," ARTnews, vol. 106 no. 6 (June 2007). page number: p. 55 url: 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 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: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 47 (October 2007): back cover. page number: Reproduced: back cover url: “Art of Asia Acquired by North American Museums, 2006-2008.” Archives of Asian Art, vol. 58, 2008, pp. 137–185. page number: Reproduced: p. 152, fig.9. url: www.jstor.org/stable/20542572 Franklin, David. “Recent Acquisitions (2005—11) at the Cleveland Museum of Art.” The Burlington Magazine, vol. 154, no. 1312, 2012, pp. 525–532. page number: Reproduced: p. 527, fig. VI url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23232806 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: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2007.155/2007.155_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2007.155/2007.155_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2007.155/2007.155_full.tif