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Earring with Four-Armed Vishnu Riding Garuda with Nagas (serpent divinities)
1600s or 1700s
- Medium
- repousse gold with pearls
- Classification
- Jewelry
- Dimensions
- Overall: 3.6 cm (1 7/16 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
In Nepal, sculptures of deities were adorned with jewelry larger than pieces made for human beings. This pair of earrings features the Hindu god Vishnu seated cross-legged riding his mount the man-eagle Garuda. Garuda's arms are outstretched, grabbing the tails of serpents whose braided bodies snake up both sides of each earring. His wings drape like a cape behind him, and his talons clutch his crescent moon perch. Serpent hoods rise up behind Vishnu like a canopy.
