Amorous Couple (Mithuna)
400s
- Medium
- terracotta
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- Overall: 38.5 x 37 cm (15 3/16 x 14 9/16 in.)
- Culture
- Northern India, Uttar Pradesh, Ahichchatra, Gupta period (c. 320-550)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Amorous couples were among the most prevalent imagery on the exterior of sacred sites in early India. Their life-affirming imagery was considered auspicious. This roundel would have been part of a brick structure, since terracotta was typically used in the ornamentation of brick temples, instead of stone.
