Bust of Buddha
c. 700
- Medium
- limestone
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- Overall: 60.6 x 34.3 cm (23 7/8 x 13 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- Central Thailand, Dvaravati, Mon-Dvaravati style, 7th-9th Century
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
While the iconographic elements, such as elongated earlobes, cranial protuberance, and snail-shell curls derived from India, the local Mon people of Thailand gave their unique expression to the facial features of the Buddha. The beauty of sharply delineated eyes and stylized curling full lips was appreciated among the Mon, and these features impart an almost piercing serenity that is distinctive to Thai images from this early period of sculptural production in Southeast Asia.
