Head of the Buddha Shakyamuni Sheltered by the Serpent King Muchalinda

CultureCambodian

Date14th century

MediumGray limestone with traces of black paint

DimensionsOverall: 18 inches (45.72 cm)

Credit LineGift of Earle Grant

Object number60-78

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

South and Southeast Asian Art

Terms

Exhibition History

Art of India and Southeast Asia: An Exhibition at the Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign, May 17-June 14, 1964, no. 76 as Head of Buddha with Naga Hood.

Gallery Label

Shortly after his enlightenment, the Buddha Shakyamuni was so deeply in meditation that storm waters threatened to engulf him. A serpent king named Muchalinda coiled himself under the Buddha to lift him up out of the flood and spread his seven-headed hood over him to serve as an umbrella. The Buddha’s broad face, prominent ears, and high conical crown reflect a late phase of the Khmer artistic tradition as it was practiced in the regions of what is now Thailand.

Provenance

With Dalzell Hatfield Galleries, Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, by 1960;

Purchased from Dalzell Hatfield Galleries by Earle W. Grant (1890-1971), San Diego, 1960;

His gift to the The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1960.

Published References

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

Krannert Art Musuem, Art of India and Southeast Asia: An Exhibition at the Krannert Art Museum, exh. cat. (Champaign: College of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Illinois, 1964), 77-78, (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), 148, (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), 393, (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), 284, fig. 12, (repro.).

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