Heraldic Lion (900s): Art, History and Details

Heraldic Lion (900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The Cham adopted Indian Buddhist and Hindu religious systems, languages, and the practice of building stone temples and monasteries. The lion, which is ubiquitous on Indian monuments, was also incorporated as a protector at Cham sacred sites. In Champa, however, the roaring and rearing lion imagery is semihuman and distinctively aggressive and extroverted. This powerful figure rearing in a combative pose was formerly in the renowned Pan-Asian Collection of Southeast Asian art assembled during the 1960s and 1970s by one major collector, Christian Humann of the renowned Rothschild banking family.

Object facts

• Title: Heraldic Lion
• Date: 900s
• Culture: Vietnam (Champa)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: Beige sandstone
• Dimensions: Overall: 76.2 cm (30 in.)
• Collection: Southeast Asian
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1982.146

A detail from the museum

The Champa kingdom occupied the central and south regions of present-day Vietnam. It was a powerful rival of the Khmer in Cambodia and the Viet of northern Vietnam.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Pal, Pratapaditya. The Sensuous Immortals: A Selection of Sculptures from the Pan-Asian Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1977.
• Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review for 1982.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 1 (January 1983): 3–55.
• Eilenberg, Natasha and Robert L. Brown. "The Sculptures." Société des Amis du Champa Ancien, no. 6, December 1999.

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.