Cleveland Museum of Art
Head of Buddha
- Date
- 400s CE
- Medium
- sandstone
- Culture
- Northern India, Uttar Pradesh, Mathura
- Department
- Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
The brows arch with tension and alertness, though the lids are half closed. Short curls cover his head and cranial protuberance, which during this period came to be interpreted as a mark of one who has reached enlightenment, his state of awareness having surpassed the boundaries of an ordinary human being. Sculptors working during the time when kings of the Gupta dynasty (c. 319–550 CE) ruled northern India achieved a balance between fleshy volumes and idealized linear features. This balance led scholars to consider the Gupta period to be a “classical” age of Indian art.
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