Palanquin Hook (1175–1230): Art, History and Details

Palanquin Hook (1175–1230) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

When members of the royal family or priesthood traveled in a public festival procession or to a temple to make offerings or participate in a ceremony, they would be carried in a palanquin, or a covered litter. Portable objects of veneration, such as bronze images or a sacred fire, were also carried on palanquins. The palanquins had wooden poles, hanging seats or raised platforms, and bronze fittings cast in intricate forms and gilt, lending the palanquins a sumptuous quality. This hook once supported a bronze ring from which hung a seat, like a hammock or swing. A wooden pole would have passed through the hollow socket at the top and was carried on the shoulders of bearers. The hook segment ends in the face of a garuda, a man-eagle with a prominent beak, stylized wings, and feathers. Figures indicative of devotion and success, including pairs of elephants, crown the fitting.

Object facts

• Title: Palanquin Hook
• Date: 1175–1230
• Culture: Cambodia, probably Angkor
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 17.4 cm (6 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Cambodian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1982.12

A detail from the museum

In the middle of the hook, a figure holding a sword in one hand and his extended leg in the other is in a dance pose expressing vigorous attack.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review for 1982.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 70, no. 1, 1983, pp. 3–55.

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.