Quezal Art Glass and Decorating Company (American, 1901–1924)

The Quezal Art Glass and Decorating Company was begun by former employees of Louis Comfort Tiffany as a rival operation in 1902. With its expressive form and brilliant golden iridescence, this vase represents the finest work produced by the Queens, New York, company in the Art Nouveau style.

June Greenwald, [b. 1931], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art

Jack-in-the-Pulpit Vase

Honoré Daumier was known for his witty depictions of contemporary Parisian types, including the art collectors seen in this drawing. The sheet belongs to a series in which the artist depicted these connoisseurs in the process of closely studying works of art. Although here, the men's focus seems sincere, in many works Daumier caricatured his subjects' greediness, smugness, or obliviousness.

French Art Since Eighteen Hundred. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 8-December 8, 1929).

French Art Since Eighteen Hundred

Drawings in the Classic and Romantic Tradition before 1830. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 7, 1932-January 11, 1933).

Drawings in the Classic and Romantic Tradition before 1830

Daumier: peintures, aquarelles, dessins. Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, France (organizer) (March 2-June 7, 1934).

Daumier: peintures, aquarelles, dessins

Independent Painters of Nineteenth-Century Paris. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA (organizer) (March 15-April 28, 1935).

Independent Painters of Nineteenth-Century Paris

Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 28-December 9, 1937).

Drawings from the Museum Collection

Daumier, 1808-1879. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (organizer) (November 6-December 12, 1937).

Daumier, 1808-1879

Old Master Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 4-March 26, 1939).

Old Master Drawings from the Museum Collection

Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 11-October 3, 1940).

Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-April 27, 1941).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition

French Drawings and Watercolors from French Public and Private Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 6-February 15, 1942).

French Drawings and Watercolors from French Public and Private Collections

Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 17-August 24, 1942).

19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 22-September 1, 1943).

19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans

19th-Century French Drawings. Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA (organizer) (March 8-April 6, 1947).

19th-Century French Drawings

Old Master Drawings from Midwestern Museums. The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (organizer) (June 1-September 15, 1950).

Old Master Drawings from Midwestern Museums

Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959).

Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition

French Drawings from American Collections: Clouet to Matisse. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (July 31-September 28, 1958); Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, France (October 24, 1958-January 2, 1959); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (February 3-March 15, 1959).

French Drawings from American Collections: Clouet to Matisse

Italian and French Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 13, 1959-February 2, 1960).

Italian and French Drawings

Aspects of Drawing. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 10-April 2, 1961).

Aspects of Drawing

Water Color. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 6-August 27, 1962).

Water Color

Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963).

Drawings

Drawings: France, Italy, Netherlands. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 1-March 24, 1965).

Drawings: France, Italy, Netherlands

French Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 10, 1965-February 16, 1966).

French Drawings

Seventeenth-, Eighteenth-, and Early Nineteenth-Century Genre and French Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 31-August 19, 1979).

Seventeenth-, Eighteenth-, and Early Nineteenth-Century Genre and French Prints and Drawings

Honoré Daumier, 1808-1879. National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (organizer) (September 23-November 25, 1979).

Honoré Daumier, 1808-1879

Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1982-January 9, 1983).

Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art

Treasures on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 10-July 24, 1988).

Treasures on Paper

Daumier Drawings. Städelsches Kunstinstitut im Städtischen Kunstinstitut Frankfurt am Main (organizer) (November 17, 1992-January 17, 1993); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (February 26-May 2, 1993).

Daumier Drawings

French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995).

French Drawings from the Collection

Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).

Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art

(sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Collection Paul Bureau [première vente], May 20, 1927, no. 66, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, through Marcel Guiot)

Art Lovers

Daumier's witty pictures of contemporary types included several drawings, prints, and paintings in which he explored a theme he knew well: collectors and other viewers perusing art works. Sometimes he caricatured his subjects' greediness, smugness, or stupidity, but in this example the three men seem to study the objects with sincere appreciation.

This pillar reflects the influence of Greco-Roman culture on Indian art and the influence of Gandharan styles and bacchanalian themes on the art of Mathura. The pillar depicts female figures who, seemingly intoxicated, play instruments and dance. Two additional scenes are carved on the base. First, a hunchbacked woman pours wine for an obese male fertility figure (yaksha). The second scene probably illustrates the story of the horse-headed yakshi who ate her victims.

Year in Review: 1977. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (December 28, 1977-January 22, 1978).

Year in Review: 1977

The Twain Shall Meet. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 30, 1985-January 5, 1986).

The Twain Shall Meet

Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 13, 1985-January 5, 1986); The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (February 13-April 6, 1986); Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA (May 13-July 13, 1986).

Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India

Buddha in India. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (organizer) (April 2-July 16, 1995).

Buddha in India

Streams and Mountains Without End: Asian Art and the Legacy of Sherman E. Lee at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 27-August 23, 2009).

Streams and Mountains Without End: Asian Art and the Legacy of Sherman E. Lee at the Cleveland Museum of Art

Gallery One 2012. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2012-March 5, 2017).

Gallery One 2012

Tree and Serpent: The Evolution of Early Buddhist Art in India. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (July 23-November 13, 2023).

Tree and Serpent: The Evolution of Early Buddhist Art in India

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Corner Railing Pillar with Drinking Scenes, Yakshis, and Musicians

This upright post was positioned at the corner of a square railing or gateway surrounding a sacred site, demarcating it from the outside world. The carvings depict a bacchanale: grapevines heavy with fruit set the scene and musicians accompany the drinking and dancing. Below, a hunchbacked woman ladles wine into a cup for a dwarf in a rocky setting. On the other face, women, like the maenads of ancient Greece, struggle to keep their garments on, while below, a lustful horse-headed nature divinity, a yakshi, accosts a young man. Forested drinking scenes associated with the god Bacchus were probably introduced into India with Roman merchants who traveled by sea to the Indus River during the flourishing time of the Silk Road, when this sculpture was made. Bacchanalian scenes reflected the joy of merchants who successfully survived the dangerous journey and accrued wealth. Indian artists in Mathura adapted them and incorporated them into the auspicious imagery that ornamented the exterior of a sacred site.

The Language of Beauty in African Art. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX (April 3-July 31, 2022) https://kimbellart.org/exhibition/language-beauty-african-art; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (November 10, 2022-February 27, 2023) https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/9344/the-language-of-beauty-in-african-art.

The Language of Beauty in African Art

Possibly Fon (King) Fosto I and Fon Fosto II, Bandjoun Kingdom, Cameroon

Fon Kamga II Joseph (1902-1975; r. 1925-1975), Bandjoun Kingdom, Cameroon by descent from the above

possibly Rev. Frank Christol, by gift from the above

Charles-François Ratton (son of Charles), Paris

Private collection, Paris by purchase from Yves Devlon (sold on their behalf by Galerie Bernard Dulon, Paris, France, to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

Prestige stool (Kuo)

Bead-covered wooden stools and thrones are one of the most prevalent art forms among the various kingdoms and chiefdoms in the Cameroon Grassfields region. This example, once part of the royal treasury, belongs in the category of "travel stools," usually used in conjunction with more private, minor ceremonies and rituals at the palace. The leopard imagery confirms the object’s royal status. It alludes to the belief that the king could temporarily transform himself into this feared predator.

Beyond its specific depiction of a mother nursing her child, this sculpture symbolizes a larger concept of ancestral motherhood that is central to Senufo society, in which cultural inheritance is matrilineal. The darkened areas of wood come from oils applied to its surface as both libations and surface protectants. In some Senufo beliefs, one of the most important founding ancestors is the Great Mother or Ancient Woman (Katyeleeo or Maleeo). In groups that believe in the Great Mother, she suckles male initiates with the "milk of knowledge." Through this process, youths gain the information they need to become adults (that is, fully human). The simplified appearance of the "child" in this sculpture reflects his unformed, pre-initiated state.

Year in Review (1961). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 1-26, 1961).

Year in Review (1961)

The Imagination of Primitive Man. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (organizer) (January 18-February 25, 1962).

The Imagination of Primitive Man

Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 24-November 16, 1975).

Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture

Images of the Mind. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 7-August 30, 1987).

Images of the Mind

Senufo: Art and Identity in West Africa. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 22-May 31, 2015); Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (June 28-September 27, 2015); Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France (November 28, 2015-March 6, 2016).

Senufo: Art and Identity in West Africa

Mathias Komor, New York, NY, 1961, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art

Nursing Woman with Child

The name Senufo covers a complex network of more than 30 different language and dialect groups. The male Poro society and its female counterpart, Tyekpa, constitute the main contexts for art production and use. Among the Fodonon Senufo subgroup, mother-and-child figures play a role in funerary ceremonies organized by the Tyekpa association in which they are carried on the participating women’s heads. However, among the Central Senufo, similar female figures are used as stationary display sculpture for the male Poro society. In the context of the Poro and its female counterpart, mother-and-child figures probably refer to "Ancient Mother," the central deity of the Poro initiation cycle. She is responsible for the protection and instruction of the initiates, her "children," nursing them with the milk of knowledge and thus transforming them into perfect human beings.

Korean Art in Early Chosön, 1400-1600. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (March 17-June 21, 2009).

Korean Art in Early Chosön, 1400-1600

Worcester R. Warner [1846–1929], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art

Amitabha Triad

금동아미타여래삼존좌상 (金銅阿彌陀如來三尊坐像)

This rare bronze triad from the 1400s shows Amitabha (아미타불 in Korean), or the Buddha of the Western Paradise, seated on a lotus pedestal at the center. He is flanked by two sacred attendants, Ksitigarbha (지장보살 in Korean) on his left and Avalokitesvara (관음보살 in Korean) on his right. The combination of these three Buddhist deities was particularly popular in the early Joseon period. The small scale suggests that this triad might have been displayed in a personal shrine rather than a large worship hall.

Beyond Angkor: Cambodian Sculpture from Banteay Chhmar. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 14, 2017-March 25, 2018).

Beyond Angkor: Cambodian Sculpture from Banteay Chhmar

Beyond Bollywood: 2000 Years of Dance in Art. The Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH (organizer) (November 11, 2022-February 5, 2023) https://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/art/exhibitions/upcoming-exhibitions/beyond-bollywood-2000-years-of-dance-in-art/; Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (March 31-July 10, 2023) https://exhibitions.asianart.org/exhibitions/beyond-bollywood-2000-years-of-dance-in-art/.

Beyond Bollywood: 2000 Years of Dance in Art

(Chai Ma Antiques, Bangkok, Thailand, sold to Maxeen Stone Flower)

Dr. John A. [1921–2011] and Maxeen Stone Flower [1928–2010], Shaker Heights, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art

Hevajra

Hevajra was an important figure signaling the practice of Buddhist rituals. King Jayavarman VII placed particular emphasis on Hevajra during consecration rituals and set up a colossal stone sculpture of dancing Hevajra at the east gate of his fortified city in the Khmer capital at Angkor. In the Cambodia of Jayavarman VII, tantric Buddhism became public and widespread, practiced together with other more mainstream forms of Buddhism, Hinduism, and ancestor worship. The iconography of Hevajra is described in detail in a text that bears his name, the Hevajra-tantra, first composed in India probably in the 800s. Hevajra has eight heads, sixteen arms, and four legs. His left hands hold images of Indic gods; wealth, death, sun, moon, fire, wind, water, and earth. In his right hands are animals: bull, lion, human, cat, camel, sheep, horse, and elephant. They all sit in skull cups, objects also used in tantric rituals. He dances on a corpse that embodies ignorance and is surrounded by eight yoginis who dance triumphantly in a ring around him. Yoginis functioned as intercessors between human practitioners and enlightened beings. Many bronze images of Hevajra were made during the reign of Jayavarman VII, but few survive in as pristine condition as this example. According to scientific analysis and curatorial reports, this sculpture survived in a clay vessel submerged in water, which accounts for its high tin content and unusual gray patina. Samples from the clay core reveal the presence of the mineral feldspar, a characteristic of clay from the Isaan plateau, on the other side of the mountain range not far from Banteay Chhmar, in present-day Thailand.

Year in Review: 1969. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 27-February 22, 1970).

Year in Review: 1969

Dance of the Gods: Indian Art Inspired by Music. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 24-December 8, 1996).

Dance of the Gods: Indian Art Inspired by Music

(J.J. Klejman, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

Frieze with Dancer and Musicians

A dancer, who strikes a pose in the center, is accompanied by a full orchestra of musicians in lively variegated poses. At the far left, a woman plays the cymbals, her mouth open in song. Twisting turning postures of figures wrought in high relief with little background space behind them are characteristics of Indian sculpture from the medieval period. Music and dance were important components of devotional temple activities; they were considered as pleasing to the divinity and attractive for devotees as the works of sculpture and architecture.

Year in Review: 1979. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 20-March 9, 1980).

Year in Review: 1979

The Persistence of Classicism in Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1988-January 15, 1989).

The Persistence of Classicism in Sculpture

Rodin and His Contemporaries. Sunrise Art Museum, Charleston, WV (organizer) (January 10-March 8, 1998).

Rodin and His Contemporaries

Conserving the Past for the Future. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-May 6, 2001).

Conserving the Past for the Future

Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Beijing World Art Museum, China (May 26-August 27, 2006); Mori Art Center (September 16-November 26, 2006); Seoul Art Center, South Korea (December 22, 2006-March 28, 2007); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, South Korea (April 7-May 20, 2007); Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (June 9-September 16, 2007); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 15-June 1, 2008); Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (June 22-September 21, 2008); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 12, 2008-January 18, 2009).

Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art

Rodin-100 Years. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 1, 2017-May 13, 2018).

Rodin-100 Years

Alexandre P. Rosenberg, New York, NY, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art

The Thinker

Rodin originally conceived The Thinker as a depiction of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) sitting in the upper center of a monumental sculptural doorway titled The Gates of Hell (below). Inspired by Dante’s description of a journey through the underworld in his epic poem The Divine Comedy (about 1320), The Thinker contemplates mankind’s fate while gazing at a host of damned figures writhing in anguish below. Stripped of clothing, the figure’s rippling muscles convey an inner, animating life force symbolic of mental activity or creative effort. The figure leans forward, as if ready to spring from his perch, yet seems simultaneously caught in the inaction of deep thought. Rodin produced independent versions of The Thinker, first in this original size and later in a monumental version.

Year in Review for 1986. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 4-March 15, 1987).

Year in Review for 1986

Asian Autumn: Later Korean Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 22, 1992-January 3, 1993).

Asian Autumn: Later Korean Art

Korean Gallery 236 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 13-July 10, 2017).

Korean Gallery 236 Rotation

Korean Gallery 236 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (July 10, 2017-January 8, 2018).

Korean Gallery 236 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (July 16, 2018-January 20, 2019).

Ink, Paper, and Brush - Korean Gallery 236 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (July 24, 2019-January 26, 2020).

Ink, Paper, and Brush - Korean Gallery 236 Rotation

Gold Needles: Embroidery Arts from Korea. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 7-October 25, 2020).

Gold Needles: Embroidery Arts from Korea

Creating Urgency: Modern and Contemporary Korean Art (Korean art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 22-October 23, 2022).

Creating Urgency: Modern and Contemporary Korean Art (Korean art rotation)

(London Gallery, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

Jar with Dragon and Clouds Design

철화 백자 운룡무늬 호 (鐵畵白磁雲龍文壺)

In traditional Korean art, dragons have been used as an emblem of royalty. Over many centuries, the ways of depicting this powerful mythical creature evolved and varied in response to artistic trends and socioeconomic changes. On this jar from the 1600s, the artist drew a whimsical dragon with bulging eyes who wraps his scaled body around the vessel. The artist’s aim here was to capture the wild spirit of the supernatural creature with free flowing calligraphic brushstrokes.

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 12, 1936).

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition

Classic to Baroque: A Style Change in the Arts. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 30-November 13, 1949).

Classic to Baroque: A Style Change in the Arts

Florence and the Arts: Five Centuries of Patronage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 29, 1971-January 2, 1972).

Florence and the Arts: Five Centuries of Patronage

Caraffa family, Palazzo Sant'Angelo, Naples

Harry Woodbury Parsons, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Margaret

Lippi’s sophisticated composition gracefully overlaps five figures in a round format. Oliviero Caraffa, Cardinal of Naples, commissioned this work, although Lippi probably painted it in Rome while working for the cardinal’s family, an example of the widespread taste across Italy for the art of Florence. Meticulously detailed still-life elements on the parapet, thick with symbolic meaning, reflect Lippi’s interest in northern European painting he would have seen in Florence. Likewise the classical architecture—referring to the pagan world cast off by Christianity—demonstrates his engagement with ancient art and architecture in Rome. Embellished with learned references and made with expensive materials, this painting would have actively inspired religious meditation and demonstrated the patrons’ courtly, civilized taste.

Exhibition of the Month: Design in Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 31, 1946-February 10, 1947).

Exhibition of the Month: Design in Sculpture

Primitive to Contemporary Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 6-October 31, 1956).

Primitive to Contemporary Sculpture

Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (February 1-September 3, 2000).

Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art

(Louis Carré, Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

Head of a Hobbyhorse (korèdugaso)

Pertaining to the male initiation society called Korè, this sculpture from the Koulikoro region represents the head of an aardvark and is part of a wooden hobbyhorse that is mounted by a ritual buffoon. The Korè initiates are divided into different classes, each having a designated mask. The ritual buffoons appear in pantomimes on different public occasions and poke fun at village authorities and other high-ranking individuals.

Lion sculptures like this example are often found at the entrance to Buddhist temples in China. It may seem as if they are there to protect the temple. Lions also have had strong associations with Buddhism since the religion’s origin; the dharma, or Buddhist doctrine, is said to be spread through his roar.

Golden Anniversary of Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 10-October 16, 1966).

Golden Anniversary of Acquisitions

Guardian Lion

A coping rail is the top portion of a fence that connects the upright posts. Here, an undulating lotus rhizome blossoms with jewelry, and in the spaces between are scenes from two of the Buddha's past lives. At the left, a man eats a lizard, and then lies about its running off (Godha Jataka); at the right an ascetic performs a Vedic fire sacrifice (possibly the Rajovada Jataka).

Year in Review: 1972. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 27-March 18, 1973).

Year in Review: 1972

Severance A. [1895-1985] and Greta [Marguerite Steckerl] Millikin [1903-1989], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art

Section of a Coping Rail

The stupa at Bharhut is one of the earliest monuments in India to have a fully embellished railing carved with a variety of imagery pertaining to life and prosperity. Many reliefs on the coping stone depict scenes from the past lives of the Buddha. These two vignettes may be examples, but they remain unidentified, because the portion where label inscriptions would have been carved has broken away. The scenes are carved in spaces created by an undulating lotus rhizome from which jewelry sprouts instead of lotus flowers. In several of the stories of the Buddha's past life, he was born as a Brahmin, or member of the Hindu priest class. The figure on the right with the matted dreadlocks piled on his head is a Brahmin ascetic seated in front of his hut holding a ladle and tending a fire. Fire sacrifices were central to the activities of Brahmins as a means of communicating with the gods.

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