Cleveland Museum of Art

Seated Buddha

Date: c. 300 CE
Medium: stucco
Culture: Afghanistan, Hadda, probably Tape Shotor
Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 143465

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

Multiple images of seated Buddhas and related figures surrounded monuments called stupas that enshrined sacred relics. Made of stucco, which is a lime-based plaster material, the backs of the sculptures were fixed to the platform on which the hemispherical stupa was constructed. Visitors would see these images as they venerated the stupas by walking around them reverently, in a clockwise direction. The main stupa at Hadda reportedly contained relics of Shakyamuni Buddha, also known as Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of the Buddhism. The way the Buddha holds his hands on his crossed legs indicates that he is shown in meditation.

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Provenance & credit

As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.

Credit line: Edward L. Whittemore Fund
Provenance: ?–1967: Mr. and Mrs. Franz Veit, Shaker Heights, OH, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 1967–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH