Sambandar, a Hindu Saint

CultureIndian

Date13th century

MediumBronze

DimensionsOverall: 26 inches (66.04 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number34-5

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

South and Southeast Asian Art

Terms

Exhibition History

Masterpieces of Sculpture, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, November 2-December 11, 1949, no cat.

Art of Greater India, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, March 1-April 16, 1950, no. 68 as Dancing Krishna.

Bronze Sculptures from the Far East, Exhibition for the Third Annual Conference on Asian Affairs, University of Nebraska Art Galleries, October 29-November 28, 1954, no cat.

Bronzes of India and Greater India, The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, November 2-30, 1955, no. 40 as Krisna.

Art in Asia and the West, San Francisco Museum of Art, October 28-December 1, 1957, no. 4k as Dancing Krishna (Balakrishna).

The Art of India, The Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, New York, April 7-30, 1961, no. 45 as Dancing Krishna.

Master Bronzes of India, The Art Institute of Chicago, September 3-October 10, 1965; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, October 21-November 30, 1965; Cleveland Museum of Art, OH, January 18-February 27, 1966; Asia House Gallery, New York, October 12-December 11, 1966, no. 52 as The Child Krishna Dancing (Balakrishna).

Krishnamandala, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, August 2-September 27, 1970, no. 1 as Dancing Krishna.

The Art of India & Pakistan, Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, NC., February 20-April 20, 1985; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN, May 1-June 10, 1985; J. B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY, July 7-September 1, 1985, no. 35 as Krishna Dancing.

Dancing to the Flute: Music and Dance in Indian Art, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, June 12-August 24, 1997, no.94c as Saint Sambandar.

Gallery Label

Sambandar was a child saint who wrote many hymns in praise of the god Shiva. Once while he was left alone on a river bank, he was visited by Shiva’s wife, the goddess Parvati, who appeared and fed the child with her own milk. Afterwards he danced in ecstasy. When his father inquired where he had obtained the milk, the child pointed to the sky, where Shiva and Parvati appeared in order to bless the father and child. Dancing images of this saint are often mistakenly identified as depicting Dancing Krishna. However, Krishna would carry a butterball in his right hand or perform the gesture of reassurance. The pointing gesture displayed by this fleshy, life-like image of Sambandar refers to the divine vision of Shiva and Parvati and is a hallmark of the saint.

Provenance

With C. T. Loo & Co., New York, by January 1934;

Purchased from C. T. Loo & Co. by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1934.

Published References

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Art of Greater India: 3000 B.C.-2800 A.D., edited by Henry Trubner, exh. cat. (Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum, 1950), 39, plate 68, (repro.).

Rhode Island School of Design. Bronzes of India and Greater India; an Exhibition Held the 2 till the 30 November, 1955, exh. cat. (Providence, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, 1955), 12, (fig. 40), 20, (repro.).

San Francisco Museum of Art, Art in Asia and the West, exh. cat. (San Francisco, California: H. S. Crocker Co., Inc., 1957), 14, 30, (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), 232-33, (repro.).

The Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, The Art of India, exh. cat. (Rochester: The Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, 1961), unpaginated.

Sherman E. Lee, A History of Far Eastern Art, (New York: Abrams, 1964), 214, fig. 268, (repro.).

The Art Institute of Chicago, Master Bronzes of India, exh. cat. (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1965), no. 52, (repro.).

M. Fairbanks Marcus, “Master Bronzes of India: the Expanding Horizon of Indian Bronzes,” Oriental Art New Series, XII, no. 1 (Spring 1966): 91, fig. 9, fig. 9a, (repro.).

Anthony Lauck, “A Krishna at Notre Dame,” Art Journal XXV, no. 4 (Summer 1966): 386, fig. 1,3, (repro.).

Walter M. Spink, Krishnamandala, a Devotional Theme in Indian Art, Special publications, no. 2., exh. cat. (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan. Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, 1971), fig. 1, viii, 12, (repro.).

Pal, Pratapaditya, “The Rich Variety of the Indian Bronze,” Apollo, 97 (March 1973): 80, fig. 13, (repro.).

Charles T. Price, “…the Splendor of Splendid Things,” Connecticut College Alumni Magazine 50, no. 2 (Spring 1973): 20, (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), 138, (repro.).

D. L. Carmody and J. T. Carmody, Ways to the Center (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1981), 129, fig. 14, (repro.).

Milo C. Beach, The Art of India & Pakistan, exh. cat., (Durham, NC: Duke University Institute of the Arts, 1985), 48, fig. 35, (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), 386, (repro.).

Jim Masselos, et al. Dancing to the Flute: Music and Dance in Indian Art, exh. cat. (Sydney, Australia: The Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1997), 156-57, (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), 271, fig. 43, (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), 68-69, (repro.).

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