Caparisoned Elephant (c. 1000s): Art, History and Details

Caparisoned Elephant (c. 1000s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The six-tusked elephant holds the throne of Puxian (Samantabhadra), the Bodhisattva of Universal Virtue, who often appears with Wenshu (Manjusri), the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, on his lion-vehicle. This impressive gilt bronze statue is solidly cast, except for the hollow at the center of its belly. The richly ornate saddle cloth exhibits superb craftsmanship and vivid representations of dragons among clouds, echoing the worldly splendor of the Liao material culture.

Object facts

• Title: Caparisoned Elephant
• Date: c. 1000s
• Culture: China, Liao dynasty (916-1125)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: gilt bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 18.5 cm (7 5/16 in.)
• Collection: China - Liao Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1980.24

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Christie's London. Fine Chinese Ceramics, Paintings and Works of Art. 16 April 1980.
• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1980.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 6 (June 1981): 163–219.

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.