Crouching Dwarf Musician (200–100 BCE): Art, History and Details

Crouching Dwarf Musician (200–100 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Images of dwarfs referenced the fertility of the earth. With lush curling hair, portly full body, and visible genitals, this figure squats close to the earth and plays on a double flute pipe instrument.

Object facts

• Title: Crouching Dwarf Musician
• Date: 200–100 BCE
• Culture: India, Shunga period (185–78 BCE)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: terracotta
• Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.7 x 3.7 cm (4 x 3 7/16 x 1 7/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Sunga
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1983.79

A detail from the museum

Two holes at the top and bottom of the figure indicate that this object worked as a whistle.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Turner, Evan H. "Year in Review for 1983." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 71, no. 2 (1984): 38-79.
• Poster, Amy G. From Indian Earth: 4,000 Years of Terracotta Art : [Exhibition]. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum, 1986.
• Guy, John. Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2023.

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.