Lovers (Mithuna)

Description

Erotic imagery was a standard element on sacred monuments in India. Idealized lovers signal the auspiciousness of birth, prosperity of life, and the abundance of the created world, indicating to worshippers at the temple that their offerings and prayers would be fruitful and productive. The exaggerated size of their eyes, linearity of the facial features and ornaments, and the impossible twisting of their limbs and her body create an unnatural stylization that heightens the intensity of the scene, as the two figures seem effortlessly unified in their embrace.

Provenance

Pan Asian Collection; (Robert H. Ellsworth [1929–2014], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) (1982); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1982–)

Lovers (Mithuna)

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1000s

Accession Number

1982.64

Medium

sandstone

Dimensions

Overall: 74 cm (29 1/8 in.)

Classification

Sculpture

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund