Pair of Earrings with Vishnu Riding Garuda, 1600s or 1700s
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Pair of Earrings with Vishnu Riding Garuda

1600s or 1700s

Medium
Gold set with precious and semiprecious stones
Classification
Jewelry
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Credit line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade
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

These earrings were made to hang on large bronze sculptures of deities worshipped in Nepalese temples. Nepalese craftsmen excelled at the detailed encrustation of jewels to depict complex figural imagery. They shaped gold wires into a framework, then inserted polished stones into the spaces, held in place with an adhesive. Four-armed Vishnu is made of sapphires; his mount the man-eagle appears to be made of carnelian and spinel with wings of turquoise.