Section of a Coping Rail
Unknown Artist
1–200 CE
Medium
sandstone
Dimensions
17.5 × 69 × 6.5 cm
Classification
Stone
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Maxeen and John Flower in honor of Dr. Stanislaw Czuma
Accession Number
2011.145
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The bells are intended to evoke the sounds that once accompanied the sacred space as much as visual ornamentation. A lion and a leonine figure with a human face bound enthusiastically as part of a parade of creatures who circle the monument in the proscribed clockwise direction. The exaggerated linear outlining of their features and the flatness of their bodies are stylistic features of relief sculpture from this period. The motif in the center has vegetal fronds symmetrically springing from a l...