The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Eleven-Headed Bodhisattva of Compassion (Avalokiteshvara)

Eleven-Headed Bodhisattva of Compassion (Avalokiteshvara)

around 1000
gilt bronze with silver and copper inlay
Overall: 39.4 x 14 x 7.6 cm (15 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 3 in.)
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1975.101
Location: 237 Himalayan

Did You Know?

The bottle in his lower-left hand contains the nectar of immortality.

Description

One of the finest surviving examples of its kind, this rare six-armed form of Avalokiteshvara has the slender athletic figure and penetrating expression associated with the art of Kashmir, the main source for western Tibetan styles. This Bodhisattva combines the qualities of a prince and an ascetic, with his crown and jewels combined with the yogi's antelope skin over his left shoulder and prayer beads in his middle right hand. Representing the range of Avalokiteshvara's forms and aspects, his eleven heads are remarkably articulated with individualized features. They follow textual descriptions that describe his three placid faces, three fierce faces, three terrifying howling faces, and one laughing face, all surmounted by a head of the Buddha Amitabha, with whom he is closely associated. Tongues and lips have been inlaid with copper to extraordinary effect, and a miniature seated figure of Amitabha Buddha has been placed in the center of every crown.
  • ?-1975
    (J. E. Eskenazi, Ltd., London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1975-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Christian Luczanits in Linrothe, Robert, Christian Luczanits, and Melissa R. Kerin. 2014. Collecting paradise: Buddhist art of Kashmir and its legacies : [exhibition, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, January, 13 - April 19, 2015 ; Rubin Museum of Art, New York, May 22, 2015 - October 19, 2015]. New York (N.Y.): Rubin Museum of Art. pp. 110-111.
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 293 archive.org
    Klimburg-Salter, Deborah E., and Maximilian Klimburg. The Silk Route and the Diamond Path: Esoteric Buddhist Art on the Trans-Himalayan Trade Routes. Los Angeles, Calif: Published under the sponsorship of the UCLA Art Council, 1982. Reproduced: p. 105, pl. 32
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Images of the Mind. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1987. Reproduced: [p. 20]
    "1992 Annual Report." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 6 (1993): 215-95. Mentioned: p. 247 www.jstor.org
    Rhie, Marylin M., Robert A. F. Thurman, and John Bigelow Taylor. Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet. New York: Tibet House New York in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1996. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 127, pp. 322-323
    Kerin, Melissa R. and Rob Linrothe. "Recollecting Kashmir: Cleveland's Eleven-headed, Thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara." Orientations 46, no 1 (January/February 2015): 68-76. Reproduced: p. 71, fig. 2
  • Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet. Dr. Sun-Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, Taipei (January 16-May 1, 1998).
    Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet. Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, Germany (May 1-August 31, 1996); Fundació "la Caixa", Barcelona, Spain (October 1, 1996-January 12, 1997).
    Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet. Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (September 18-December 13, 1992).
    Images of the Mind. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 7-August 30, 1987).
  • {{cite web|title=Eleven-Headed Bodhisattva of Compassion (Avalokiteshvara)|url=false|author=|year=around 1000|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1975.101