Padmapani Lokeshvara Seated on the Rock (700s): Art, History and Details

Padmapani Lokeshvara Seated on the Rock (700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Though diminutive, this image conveys a monumental power through the intense expression particular to Kashmiri art. He sits alert in yogic concentration on a lotus pedestal that exists miraculously in a rocky wilderness. His left hand holds the stem of a lotus flower—the main attribute of this bodhisattva of compassion. His generously sized right hand with fleshy palm is in the gift-giving gesture. The tiny figure of Amitabha, the Buddha who sits in meditation in his crown, identifies the image as Avalokiteshvara.

Object facts

• Title: Padmapani Lokeshvara Seated on the Rock
• Date: 700s
• Culture: India, Kashmir
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze with silver overlay
• Dimensions: Overall: 11.5 cm (4 1/2 in.); Base: 6.3 cm (2 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1971.20

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Schroeder, Ulrich von. Indo-Tibetan Bronzes. 1st ed. Hong Kong, Glattbrugg, Switzerland: Visual Dharma Publications; Sole distributor, Nanda Distribution, 1981.
• Reedy, Chandra L. Himalayan Bronzes: Technology, Style, and Choices. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1997.

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.