Ritual Mace (early 1400s): Art, History and Details

Ritual Mace (early 1400s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Ceremonial weaponry was used in tantric rituals to combat obstacles to enlightenment, such as ignorance and uncontrolled passions. In 1407 a high-ranking Tibetan monastic patriarch visited the emperor of the Ming dynasty, known as Yongle. The Yongle emperor presented him with a number of gifts, of which the axe, mace, flaying knife, incense burner (1983.154), and the gilt bronze Virupa (1972.96) appear to have been a part, since the sculpture and the axe bear his identifying inscription in a cartouche. Imperial Chinese workmanship is noted in the lush rendering of the lion heads from which the blades emerge, the calligraphic serpentine forms, and the cloud motifs.

Object facts

• Title: Ritual Mace
• Date: early 1400s
• Culture: Sino-Tibetan, Derge School, Yongle period (1403-1427)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: iron alloy with gold inlay
• Dimensions: Overall: 38.5 cm (15 3/16 in.)
• Collection: Tibetan Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1978.9.2

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Huntington, John C., Dina Bangdel, and Robert A. F. Thurman. The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art. Chicago: Serindia Publications, 2003.

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.