Vishnu (late 400s CE): Art, History and Details

Vishnu (late 400s CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This sculpture of the Hindu god Vishnu once had four arms, indicating his superhuman power. The smooth contours of the body and placid expression betoken a new vision for images of divinities in South Asia, characterized by restrained elegance. The scarf tied loosely around his hips curves gracefully under its own weight, emphasizing his passive immobility, since it would come undone if he were to move.

Object facts

• Title: Vishnu
• Date: late 400s CE
• Culture: Central India, Gupta Period, 5th Century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: sandstone
• Dimensions: Overall: 85.4 cm (33 5/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1976.75

A detail from the museum

Strings of jewels spew from the mouth of the leonine face (kirtimukha) in the center of the crown: a mark of glory.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1976." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 64, no. 2 (1977): 39-78.
• 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.
• 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.