Shiva, Seated at Ease

Alternate TitleShiva Sukhasanamurti

CultureIndian

Date12th century

MediumBronze

DimensionsOverall: 24 1/2 × 15 1/2 × 13 inches (62.23 × 39.37 × 33.02 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number61-7

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

South and Southeast Asian Art

Terms

Exhibition History

Exposition de Sculptures et Bronzes Ancien de L'Inde, C. T. Loo & Company, Paris, June 14-July 31, 1935, no. 14 as Civa.

Master Bronzes of India, The Art Institute of Chicago, September 3-October 10, 1965; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, October 21-November 30, 1965; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, January 18-February 27, 1966; Asia House Gallery, New York, October 12-December 11, 1966, no. 42 as Seated Shiva.

Manifestations of Shiva, Philadelphia Museum of Art, March 29-June 7, 1981; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, August 1-September 27, 1981; Seattle Art Museum, November 25, 1981-January 31, 1982; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 23-May 30, 1982, no. 97 as Siva, Seated at Ease (Sukhasanamurti).

Shiva Nataraja, Der Komische Tanzer, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, Switzerland, November 16, 2008-March 1, 2009, no. 25 as Sukhasanamurti, Shiva in Komfortabler Sitzhaltung.

Gallery Label

The Hindu god Shiva sits at ease on a lotus seat. He wears a short garment, and his matted hair is piled up in an elaborate coiffure, which contains a small serpent and a flower. He wears two differently-shaped earrings. The earring on the right is a makara (monster), which is usually worn by men, and on the left is a round disk usually worn by women. This combination suggests that all of creation, including male and female, is an emanation of the god. His lower right hand performs the gesture of reassurance while his lower left hand beckons the worshiper to approach for a boon. His attributes of the ax and the deer, once held in the upper hands, are now missing.

Provenance

With C. T. Loo, Paris, by June 14, 1935;

With J. J. Klejman, New York, by 1960;

Purchased from J. J. Klejman by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1961.

Published References

C. T. Loo & Company, Exposition de Sculptures et Bronzes Anciens de l’Inde, exh. cat. (Paris: C. T. Loo & Company, 1935), 8-9, plate 8, fig. 14, (repro.).

“Recent Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase,” in The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum Bulletin 3, no. 3 (1961): 16, 20, (repro.).

Art Institute of Chicago and William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Master Bronzes of India, exh. cat. (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1965), unpaginated, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 2, Art of the Orient, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 136, (repro.).

Stella Kramrisch, Manifestations of Shiva, exh. cat. (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1981), 97, (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 385, (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 269, fig. 38, (repro.), 385, (repro.).

Johannes Beltz, and Saskia Cornelia Kersenboom. Shiva Nataraja: der kosmische Tänzer, exh. cat. (Zürich: Museum Rietberg, 2008), 116-17, (repro.).

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