Seated Buddha (600s): Art, History and Details

Seated Buddha (600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Portable Buddhist figures and objects like this gilt bronze had a variety of uses. They could have been carried in religious processions. Others could serve as donations, souvenirs, or votive items in the context of pilgrimages to religious sites. Their miniature size also made them appropriate for placement on private altars or shrines for personal devotion.

Object facts

• Title: Seated Buddha
• Date: 600s
• Culture: China, Tang dynasty (618-907)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: gilt bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 13.3 x 6.9 cm (5 1/4 x 2 11/16 in.); Figure: 9.9 cm (3 7/8 in.)
• Collection: China - Tang Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1961.18

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. John Lyon Collyer in memory of her mother, Mrs. G. M. G. Forman

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review 1961.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 48, no. 9 (1961): 219–251.
• Sun, Di 孙迪, editor. Zhongguo liu shi hai wai Fo jiao zao xiang zong he tu mu [中国流失海外佛教造像总合图目= Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Buddhist Statues in Overseas Collections]. Beijing: Wai wen chu ban she, 2005.
• von Spee, Clarissa. “China through the Magnifying Glass: Miniature and small objects in detail.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 62, no. 4 (December 2022): 14-16.

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.