COLLECTION NAME:
The AMICA Library
mediaCollectionId
AMICO~1~1
The AMICA Library
Collection
true
AMICA ID:
CMA_.1973.106
amicoid
CMA_.1973.106
AMICA ID
false
AMICA Library Year:
1998
aly
1998
AMICA Library Year
false
Object Type:
Sculpture
oty
Sculpture
Object Type
false
Creator Nationality:
Asian; Southeast Asian; Cambodian
crc
Asian; Southeast Asian; Cambodian
Creator Nationality
false
Creator Dates/Places:
Cambodia
cdt
Cambodia
Creator Dates/Places
false
Creator Name-CRT:
Cambodia, early Phnom Da style, Pre-Angkorean Period
crt
Cambodia, early Phnom Da style, Pre-Angkorean Period
Creator Name-CRT
false
Title:
Krishna Govardhana
otn
Krishna Govardhana
Title
false
Title Type:
Primary
ott
Primary
Title Type
false
View:
Full View
rid
Full View
View
false
Creation Date:
first half 6th Century
oct
first half 6th Century
Creation Date
false
Creation Start Date:
500
ocs
500
Creation Start Date
false
Creation End Date:
550
oce
550
Creation End Date
false
Materials and Techniques:
gray limestone
omd
gray limestone
Materials and Techniques
false
Dimensions:
Overall: 244cm, without base: 200.8cm
met
Overall: 244cm, without base: 200.8cm
Dimensions
false
AMICA Contributor:
The Cleveland Museum of Art
oon
The Cleveland Museum of Art
AMICA Contributor
false
Owner Location:
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
oop
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Owner Location
false
ID Number:
1973.106
ooa
1973.106
ID Number
false
Credit Line:
John L. Severance Fund
ooc
John L. Severance Fund
Credit Line
false
Rights:
orl
<a href="http://www.clemusart.com/museum/disclaim2.html"target="_new">http://www.clemusart.com/museum/disclaim2.html</a>
Rights
false
Context:
This sculpture of Krishna lifting Mount Govardhana represents the god in his aspect as the savior of mankind: by lifting the mountain, he provided his followers with shelter from torrential rains and flooding. The Phnom Da style that this sculpture illustrates is the earliest phase of Cambodian art and a prototype for later Cambodian sculpture. The sophistication of this precursory style can be attributed to Cambodian artists' knowledge of Indian sculpture, since Southeast Asia was colonized by Indians at that time. Aside from the great art-historical significance of this image and its rarity (there are only a handful of images of the early Phnom Da style known, most of them in the Phnom Penh Museum in Cambodia), in purely aesthetic terms it is one of the sculptural masterpieces of the world. The plasticity of the body, the physical beauty, and the spiritual content reflect the great influence of classical Indian Gupta style sculpture, which inspired Phnom Da sculpture. When this image of Krishna Govardhana was acquired by the museum in 1973 from the well-known private collection of Adolphe Stoclet in Brussels, the lower portion of the stele with the legs was missing. Many fragmentary pieces of early Pre-Angkorean sculptures discovered in the hamlet of Phnom Da by the French Archaeological Mission of the cole Franaise d'Extrme-Orient in 1935 had been sent to Stoclet who intended to have them restored. The fragments were so badly broken and in such a poor state of preservation that the task, in the circumstances available to a private collector, proved too onerous. Shortly after Stoclet's attempt, the fragments were abandoned in his garden in Brussels where they lay buried for the next forty-odd years. Subsequently, in 1977 this author "excavated" them, making the restoration of sculpture to its present form possible. S.C.
cxd
This sculpture of Krishna lifting Mount Govardhana represents the god in his aspect as the savior of mankind: by lifting the mountain, he provided his followers with shelter from torrential rains and flooding. The Phnom Da style that this sculpture illustrates is the earliest phase of Cambodian art and a prototype for later Cambodian sculpture. The sophistication of this precursory style can be attributed to Cambodian artists' knowledge of Indian sculpture, since Southeast Asia was colonized by Indians at that time. Aside from the great art-historical significance of this image and its rarity (there are only a handful of images of the early Phnom Da style known, most of them in the Phnom Penh Museum in Cambodia), in purely aesthetic terms it is one of the sculptural masterpieces of the world. The plasticity of the body, the physical beauty, and the spiritual content reflect the great influence of classical Indian Gupta style sculpture, which inspired Phnom Da sculpture. When this image of Krishna Govardhana was acquired by the museum in 1973 from the well-known private collection of Adolphe Stoclet in Brussels, the lower portion of the stele with the legs was missing. Many fragmentary pieces of early Pre-Angkorean sculptures discovered in the hamlet of Phnom Da by the French Archaeological Mission of the cole Franaise d'Extrme-Orient in 1935 had been sent to Stoclet who intended to have them restored. The fragments were so badly broken and in such a poor state of preservation that the task, in the circumstances available to a private collector, proved too onerous. Shortly after Stoclet's attempt, the fragments were abandoned in his garden in Brussels where they lay buried for the next forty-odd years. Subsequently, in 1977 this author "excavated" them, making the restoration of sculpture to its present form possible. S.C.
Context
false
Related Image Identifier Link:
CMA_.1973.106.tif
ril
CMA_.1973.106.tif
Related Image Identifier Link
false