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Cosmic Mount Meru
The setting, with beasts and floating skulls in a desolate landscape, focuses the mind of the meditator (or the initiate in a ceremony) upon mortality, and hence upon the eternal. Within the circle is a view of our world, seen from above (a sacred, imaginary conception, but based upon reality). The four continents are represented by groups of three buildings. India, the southern continent, appears on the left. Between the continents and Mt. Meru are seven concentric oceans and mountain ranges. Mt. Meru rises in the center. One heaven stands on its slopes, a second lies at its summit, and four float above it.
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Jon Rüs, Atlanta, Georgia [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; John and Berthe Ford, Baltimore, 1978 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 2008, by gift.
Exhibitions
| 2014-2015 | Visions of the Cosmos. Museum Rietberg, Zürich. |
| 2010 | Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art. Asia Society, New York. |
| 2001-2003 | Desire and Devotion: Art from India, Nepal, and Tibet in the John and Berthe Ford Collection. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara; Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham; Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong. |
Geographies
Tibet
(Place of Origin)
China (Place of Origin)
Measurements
H: 45 1/2 x W: 27 3/4 in. (115.6 x 70.5 cm); Framed H: 47 3/4 × W: 29 5/8 × D: 1 1/2 in. (121.29 × 75.25 × 3.81 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of John and Berthe Ford, 2008
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
35.302