Nagarjuna (c. 150–250 CE) with a Buddhist Master
Unknown Artist
c. 1300s
Medium
gum tempera on sized cotton
Dimensions
57.8 × 45.1 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of George P. Bickford
Accession Number
1985.186
About this artwork
Nagarjuna, the Buddhist philosopher from southern India, sits on his eponymous red and black serpents, or naga. His interlocutor may be his disciple Aryadeva. A volume of the Perfection of Wisdom, honored with flowers, is on a golden bookstand between their heads. The figures sit beneath flowering and fruiting trees with peacocks and parrots, evoking the landscape of India. Lineage masters of the Sakya order of Buddhism are aligned in the top row, beginning with Virupa at the upper right. The mo...