Seated Buddha
400–430 CE
- Medium
- red mottled sandstone
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- Overall: 82 cm (32 5/16 in.)
- Culture
- Northern India, Uttar Pradesh, Mathura, Gupta period (c. 320-550)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- Leonard C. Hanna Jr. 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
This rare depiction of a seated Buddha from Mathura, datable to the first half of the 5th century, displays a new vision for the form of the Buddha, in comparison to the way he was depicted during the preceding Kushan period. His appearance remains otherworldly, but his form has relaxed and the cloth softened, as seen in the way the cascading hem falls from the arm over his left leg. Traces survive of the rearing griffins of his throne and his elegant halo, which was filled with scrolling vegetation-typical features of Buddha images from this period.
