Northern India, Uttar Pradesh / 591
Standing Buddha
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Standing Buddha as sculpture (Northern India, Uttar Pradesh · 591).
Around the time when this sculpture was made, portable bronzes began to replace relics as the principal sacred commodity circulating in the Buddhist world.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this sculpture as bronze.
The museum's collection notes: This bronze Buddha is exceptional, because it carries an inscription on its base that dates its manufacture to the year 591. According to the inscription, the sculpture was dedicated by a nun who was from a village in Nepal, but she probably commissioned it at a workshop in northern India. The Buddha's robe on this image has been left plain, without pleat lines to obscure the beauty of the contours of the body. Only the rippling scalloped clusters of the garment’s hem lend some sense of energy and subtle ornament to the composition.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtStanding BuddhaOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.