Head of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (300s–400s CE): Art, History and Details

Head of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (300s–400s CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

By this period, individual bodhisattvas were beginning to be revered as ideal figures who would deliberately postpone their own enlightenment and entrance into final nirvana, which is a state from which no one returns to be reborn into this world. Bodhisattvas accomplish all but the final meditation leading to full enlightenment, but they are considered to be so advanced in their practice and realization that they have the ability to control their rebirth and act in righteous and compassionate ways to help others achieve enlightenment. Because the remains of a lotus pedestal on which a Buddha sat is at the center of the diadem, this head can be identified as that of the Bodhisattva of Compassion. The idealized linearity of the brows and eyes along with the formalized waves of hair give an ethereal quality to the otherwise naturalistic face.

Object facts

• Title: Head of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara
• Date: 300s–400s CE
• Culture: Afghanistan or Pakistan, Gandhara, Kushan period
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: stucco with traces of paint
• Dimensions: Overall: 45.7 x 35.5 cm (18 x 14 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Kushan, Gandhara
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1985.31

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Neils, Jenifer. “The Twain Shall Meet.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, no. 6 (October 1985): 326–359.
• Czuma, Stanislaw J., and Rekha Morris. Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1985.
• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1985.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 73, no. 2 (February 1986): 26–71.

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.