Ganesha

CultureIndian

Datelate 10th-early 11th century

MediumBronze

DimensionsOverall: 23 3/4 × 11 × 7 7/8 inches (60.33 × 27.94 × 20 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number62-14

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

South and Southeast Asian Art

Terms

Exhibition History

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. 25 as Ganesha, the Elephant-headed Son of 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. 117 as Ganesa, Son of Parvati (or Siva).

Gallery Label

Ganesha is the son of the Hindu gods Shiva and Parvati. Parvati created a young boy to guard her bath when her wandering husband, Shiva was away. When Shiva saw the handsome youth outside his wife’s bath, he became enraged and cut off the young man’s head. Parvati pleaded that he restore the life of her son, so the next creature that passed by had its head cut off to replace the missing one. Since that creature happened to be an elephant, Ganesha acquired an elephant’s head. This divine elephant-headed child has always been very popular in both India and Southeast Asia. He holds a sweetmeat in his lower left hand which he is eating with his trunk. His right tusk, broken off in a fight, is in his right hand. In his upper hands he holds an ax and a noose, now broken.

Provenance

With J. J. Klejman, New York, by March 10, 1962;

Purchased from J. J. Klejman by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1962.

Published References

“Entering Public Domain,” Art News, vol. 62, no. 10 (February 1964), p. 35, 60, (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.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, “Checklist of Acquisitions 1962-1966,” The Nelson Gallery & Atkins Bulletin, 4, no. 8 (1967): 47.

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), 133, (repro.).

Stella Kramrisch, Manifestations of Shiva, exh. cat. (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1981), 143, (repro.).

Jean Unsworth, Understanding Art. (Lake Forest, IL: Glencoe, 1992), 48, (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), 384, (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), 266, fig. 29, (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), 48-49, (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.