Plaque with Vishnu (c. 600s): Art, History and Details

Plaque with Vishnu (c. 600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Images made in India during the Gupta period (AD 300s to 600s) were influential in shaping the early development of Buddhist and Hindu art in Southeast Asia. This gold token depicts the Hindu god Vishnu, identified by the flat-topped crown, his four arms, and attributes: wheel, conch shell, club, and clod of earth. Noteworthy for its naturalism is the foreshortening of his right foot. Such precious gold objects were made to be secreted under a sacred stone icon in Thailand or Cambodia to infuse the temple with wealth and glory.

Object facts

• Title: Plaque with Vishnu
• Date: c. 600s
• Culture: Thailand, Sri Deb Style, Mon-Dvaravati period, c. 7th-8th Century
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: gold repoussé
• Dimensions: Overall: 7.6 x 4.5 cm (3 x 1 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Southeast Asian
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1973.75

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• “The Year in Review for 1973.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 61, no. 2, 1974, pp. 31–78.
• “Annual Report for 1973.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 61, no. 6, 1974, pp. 179–213.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 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.