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Earring with Vishnu Riding Garuda
1600s or 1700s
- Medium
- Gold set with precious and semiprecious stones
- Classification
- Jewelry
- Dimensions
- Overall: 2.6 cm (1 in.)
- Culture
- Nepal, Kathmandu Valley
- 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
This earring was made to hang on 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.
