Gwalior. Urwai (1890): Art, History and Details

Gwalior. Urwai (1890) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Photoglob Co. (Zurich, active c. 1890–1910).

The work and its context

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

The sculptures were carved into the steep sides of the cliffs below Gwalior’s fort in the mid-1400s, but the faces were re-cut after the images were defaced in 1527. The tiny visitors depicted on the road emphasize their monumental scale. The colors in this image are imagined, added later in the studio in a lithographic printing process that produces colorized ink-on-paper prints from black-and-white photographic negatives.

Object facts

• Title: Gwalior. Urwai
• Date: 1890
• Creator attribution: Photoglob Co. (Zurich, active c. 1890–1910)
• Culture: India
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: Photochrom
• Dimensions: Image: 20.6 x 26.6 cm (8 1/8 x 10 1/2 in.); Paper: 20.6 x 26.6 cm (8 1/8 x 10 1/2 in.)
• Collection: PH - Misc. 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2018.218

A detail from the museum

These sculptures depict Jinas, who are venerated by followers of the Jain religion of India, one of the oldest religions in the world.

Collection credit

Purchase from the Karl B. Goldfield Trust

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.