Lovers (Mithuna) (1000s): Art, History and Details

Lovers (Mithuna) (1000s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Erotic imagery was a standard element on sacred monuments in India. Idealized lovers signal the auspiciousness of birth, prosperity of life, and the abundance of the created world, indicating to worshippers at the temple that their offerings and prayers would be fruitful and productive. The exaggerated size of their eyes, linearity of the facial features and ornaments, and the impossible twisting of their limbs and her body create an unnatural stylization that heightens the intensity of the scene, as the two figures seem effortlessly unified in their embrace.

Object facts

• Title: Lovers (Mithuna)
• Date: 1000s
• Culture: India, Madhya Pradesh, Khajuraho, Medieval period, Chandela dynasty
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: sandstone
• Dimensions: Overall: 74 cm (29 1/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1982.64

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review for 1982.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 1 (January 1983): 3–55.
• Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998.
• May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.

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.