Female Figure, Probably a Nature Divinity (Yakshi) (c. 75 BCE): Art, History and Details

Female Figure, Probably a Nature Divinity (Yakshi) (c. 75 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This powerful female figure, softly modeled with full volumes, is heavily adorned with jewels and flowers. In her right hand she grasps a fruit and her left rests on her hip. A sense of movement is achieved through her raised left leg, curving pleat lines, swinging beads of her necklace, and her turning head.

Object facts

• Title: Female Figure, Probably a Nature Divinity (Yakshi)
• Date: c. 75 BCE
• Culture: India, Shunga period (185–78 BCE)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: terracotta
• Dimensions: Overall: 11.5 cm (4 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Sunga
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1973.24

Collection credit

Gift of Eleanor and Morris Everett

Further reading listed by the museum

• Paresh Chandra, Das Gupta. “Early Terracottas from Chanobraketugarhy.” Lalit Kala, 6 (1959), pp. 45-52.
• "The Year in Review for 1973." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 2 (1974): 31-78.
• Neils, Jenifer. The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982.

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.