Caparisoned Elephant

Description

The six-tusked elephant holds the throne of Puxian (Samantabhadra), the Bodhisattva of Universal Virtue, who often appears with Wenshu (Manjusri), the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, on his lion-vehicle. This impressive gilt bronze statue is solidly cast, except for the hollow at the center of its belly. The richly ornate saddle cloth exhibits superb craftsmanship and vivid representations of dragons among clouds, echoing the worldly splendor of the Liao material culture.

Provenance

(J. E. Eskenazi, Ltd., London, England, sold to the Cleveland Musuem of Art) (1980); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1980–)

Caparisoned Elephant

[]

c. 1000s

Accession Number

1980.24

Medium

gilt bronze

Dimensions

Overall: 18.5 cm (7 5/16 in.)

Classification

Sculpture

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund