Description
Grape vines create vignettes with scenes of drunken revelry on this architectural carving that once fit by joinery to other carved stone blocks at the base of a Buddhist monument. Bacchus himself, the Greco-Roman god of wine, may be the third figure from the left; bearded, portly, and inebriated, his garment slips as he collapses. Cupid and Aphrodite appear in the vignette on the right next to an amorous couple. On the side is a female nature divinity, grasping the branch of a tree, but unlike her counterparts from farther south in India, she is clothed in a long tunic, pants, and scarf associated with the dress of the Central Asian nomadic groups.
Provenance
(Taiyo Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, sold to John and Maxeen Flower) (?-July 2006); Dr. John and Maxeen Stone Flower [1928-2010], Shaker Heights, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art (July 2006-2011); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (2011-)
Accession Number
2011.140
Medium
schist
Dimensions
Overall: 24.5 x 61 x 14 cm (9 5/8 x 24 x 5 1/2 in.)
Classification
Stone
Credit Line
Gift of Maxeen and John Flower in honor of Dr. Stanislaw Czuma