Head of Buddha (c. 570): Art, History and Details

Head of Buddha (c. 570) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

At the Xiangtangshan Buddhist sites in Hebei province, cave-temple construction and image making were supported by the Northern Qi imperial court and nobility. Under the constant shadow of political uncertainty and the theory of the "Law of the Decadence" (or mofa, the deterioration of the True Law after the historical Buddha’s attainment of nirvana), the Buddhist faith was embraced as the ideal for rulership. The Buddha’s smile offers reassurance and consolation.

Object facts

• Title: Head of Buddha
• Date: c. 570
• Culture: China, Hebei province, northern Xiangtangshan caves, South cave, Northern Qi dynasty (550-577)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: limestone
• Dimensions: Overall: 62.2 x 54.6 cm (24 1/2 x 21 1/2 in.)
• Collection: China - Southern Dynasties
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1923.97

A detail from the museum

This colossal Buddha head is from the Northern Xiangtangshan's South Cave, which is shaped like a stupa with a domed roof and a porch in front.

Collection credit

Gift of C. T. Loo

Further reading listed by the museum

• Ho, Wai-Kam. "Three Seated Stone Buddhas." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 53, no. 4 (1966): 84–102.
• Ho, Wai-kam. "Notes on Chinese Sculpture from Northern Ch'i to Sui Part I: Two Seated Stone Buddhas in the Cleveland Museum." Archives of Asian Art 22 (1968): 6–55.
• Nihon Bukkyō bijutsu no genryū [日本仏敎美術の源流 = Sources of Japanese Buddhist Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, Showa 53 [1978].

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.