Adoring Monk (early 500s): Art, History and Details

Adoring Monk (early 500s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Portable Buddhist figures and objects like this gilt bronze had a variety of uses. They could have been carried in religious processions. Others could serve as donations, souvenirs, or votive items in the context of pilgrimages to religious sites. Their miniature size also made them appropriate for placement on private altars or shrines for personal devotion.

Object facts

• Title: Adoring Monk
• Date: early 500s
• Culture: China, Northern Wei dynasty (386-534)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: gilt bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 14.9 cm (5 7/8 in.); Base: 3.6 x 5.2 x 3.9 cm (1 7/16 x 2 1/16 x 1 9/16 in.); Figure: 11.5 cm (4 1/2 in.)
• Collection: China - Northern Dynasties
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1962.213

A detail from the museum

The monk stands with his hands together in a reverent greeting.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. John Lyon Collyer in memory of her mother, Mrs. G. M. G. Forman

Further reading listed by the museum

• Master Bronzes, Selected from Museums and Collections in America; February, 1937, the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. [Buffalo, N.Y.]: [Burrow and Co.], 1937.
• "Back Matter." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 49, no. 8 (October 1962).
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.