Torso of a Buddha

CultureIndian

Date5th century C.E.

MediumMottled red sandstone

DimensionsOverall: 45 1/4 × 20 1/2 inches, 350 lb. (114.94 × 52.07 cm, 158.76 kg)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number45-15

On View

On view

Collections

South and Southeast Asian Art

Terms

Exhibition History

The Evolution of the Buddha Image, The Asia Society Galleries, New York, May 6-June 30, 1963, no. 9.

Gallery Label

With its wide, round shoulders, narrow waist, elongated body and gently-bending pose, this standing Buddha displays all of the distinctive features of Gupta Dynasty sculptures. Works created during this period are frequently described as representing India’s “classical” period of art. This sculpture also is characteristic of works produced in Mathura, an ancient city in northcentral India with a long tradition of art making. The red sandstone the Buddha was carved from is the local stone of Mathura. The Buddha’s robe lays over his body in a series of abstract folds that resemble sagging, parallel strings, as opposed to the nearly transparent robe worn by the Gupta-era Buddha from Sarnath, displayed on the wall to the right.

Provenance

With C. T. Loo & Co., New York, stock no. ILP-4/1456, by December 1944-1945 [1];

Purchased from C. T. Loo & Co., by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1945.

NOTES:

[1] C. T. Loo/Frank Caro archive, Musée Guimet, Paris, copy of stock card in Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.

Published References

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 183, (repro.).

Henry Trubner, “A Group of Indian Sculpture from Mathura,” The Art Quarterly 13 (Autumn 1950): p. 286, fig. 5, 290, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 224, (repro.).

Benjamin Rowland, The Evolution of the Buddha Image, exh. cat. (New York: The Asia Society Galleries in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1963), 48-49, 130, (repro.).

Laurence Sickman, “Stone Sculpture of India and South-East Asia,” Apollo, 97 (March 1973): 82, fig. 1, (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), 120, (repro.).

V. P. Dwivedi, “Mathura Art in the Museums of United States America,” Journal of Indian Museums 29 (1973): 27, 28, fig. 8, (repro.).

Donald Hoffmann, “Gallery Sculpts a New Vision,” in The Kansas City Star (Sunday, July 1, 1984): 7F, (repro.).

Ellen R. Goheen, The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988), 209-10, (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), 377, (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), 260, (repro.).

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and Kimberly Masteller, Masterworks from India and Southeast Asia: the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kanas City, Missouri: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in association with University of Washington Press, 2016), 34-36, (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.