Seated Buddha (400–430 CE): Art, History and Details

Seated Buddha (400–430 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This rare depiction of a seated Buddha from Mathura, datable to the first half of the 5th century, displays a new vision for the form of the Buddha, in comparison to the way he was depicted during the preceding Kushan period. His appearance remains otherworldly, but his form has relaxed and the cloth softened, as seen in the way the cascading hem falls from the arm over his left leg. Traces survive of the rearing griffins of his throne and his elegant halo, which was filled with scrolling vegetation-typical features of Buddha images from this period.

Object facts

• Title: Seated Buddha
• Date: 400–430 CE
• Culture: Northern India, Uttar Pradesh, Mathura, Gupta period (c. 320-550)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: red mottled sandstone
• Dimensions: Overall: 82 cm (32 5/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1973.214

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Liebert, Emily. “Julie Mehretu: Portals.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 62, no. 2 (2022): 12-13.
• "The Year in Review for 1973." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 2 (1974): 31–78.
• Czuma, Stanislaw. “Mathura Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum Collection.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 64, no. 3, 1977, pp. 83–114.

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.