Buddha Giving the First Sermon (Dharmachakrapravartanamudra)

Art Institute of Chicago

Buddha Giving the First Sermon (Dharmachakrapravartanamudra)

IndiaLinkedCulture matchlcp-1953a76f7207

Date
Pala period, late 10th/early 11th century
Medium
Black stone
Culture
Bihar
Department
Arts of Asia
Institution
Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID
148396

This sculpture presents the historical Buddha Shakyamuni delivering his first sermon at the Deer Park in Sarnath, India, where he articulated his realization of the Four Noble Truths to the five ascetics who would become his first disciples. This episode, considered one of the Eight Great Events of the Buddha’s life, is iconographically indicated by his didactic hand gesture of dharmachakramudra , whereby the Buddha sets the chakra (wheel) of dharma (law) in motion. The two deer flanking a chakra on the sculpture’s plinth allude to this teaching. The paleography of the inscription preserved in the Buddha’s halo helps date the sculpture to the late tenth or early eleventh century.

View at Art Institute of Chicago ↗

The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.

Get printable QR codes

Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.

Open this page QR destination: https://linkedculture.org/q/q1.5NljScfmaugSi-nW.zp5Mi7CyezqkN7dBFzmjSmPyMNYaoQO4YFDx3MFoNJpGeG_0fC4v8Hb2nZJbh5dhykHwJuFGWleDuhAbs78s9i5NS81zurrQyw82JxBq5Ca9SU07Ef3OCnu9PEsmxl9Pyt0ZUT29ksFs5OxDdoQ5ZFW2X1XGDcDCzsNnlJqVpgV9pnOmUs-Oy63XBpq1j5FfTFiRk7rN_Xnvgc-ZhWn_cbySZv05g7XkbM79zV0tOm7EnQ8iESbxkdXAtB4y_An3Cxc7CkZgGsyTXqL3HnJPotm5wYVcSee at Art Institute of Chicago QR destination: https://linkedculture.org/q/q1.RBWq5U6wUyRPKsuF.Ujrw6p4fBymfJa5VUUnqCKsHBQpWng7v9dOfaWIjqOJvumDvvS7iU41AeX6V51hecLf0Kc1aBoLCZQoHohHWytUmPXhuElRtuul-lwaiFrHmLNv_BeGe6aZB2NvI7ojiibfEmhN7D2ecXoMxjXZ6mY2M4dnvCmbI54XABYiV01EGpJ-iDy1dQaf6L6XPRxdX92rxSu03Jfv5gRdO4ncoNRSKL4Xj880sIq6cWHc13EMPanjRBrw75a4sPCG-BzivKcPh_qOSauxlMiPK5KtzlZ4aaw
Open this page
See at Art Institute of Chicago

Provenance & credit

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

Credit line
Gift of Marilynn B. Alsdorf
Provenance
James W. Alsdorf (1913–1990) and Marilynn B. Alsdorf (1925–2019), Winnetka and Chicago, IL, by Nov. 11, 1989 [Dayton 1989]; by descent to Marilynn B. Alsdorf, Chicago, 1990 [on long-term loan, Washington, D.C., Arthur Sackler Museum of Art, 1992–1996; on long-term loan at the Art Institute of Chicago, Sept. 11, 1996; publicly promised as a gift to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1997; signed a promised gift agreement for the work, 2002]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.

Linked open data

Authority identifiers that link this record into the wider web of cultural data — stable references you can follow to the source.

Object type
AAT300301253

Related across collections

Semantically similar works from Art Institute of Chicago and other institutions.