Museum collection · Cleveland Museum of Art · 1968.104
Nature Divinity (Yakshi)
Unknown maker, c. 75 CE
Cleveland Museum of Art · Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund · Public domain
- Artist
- Unknown maker
- Date
- c. 75 CE
- Medium
- mottled red sandstone
- Dimensions
- Overall: 127.6 x 49 x 25.4 cm (50 1/4 x 19 5/16 x 10 in.)
- Era
- Museum collection
Why it matters
This powerful figure personifies the ideal of the young mother in the form of a nature goddess associated with birth and nourishment. Her iconic stance with the weight equally distributed on both feet indicates that this statue was an object of worship. Her extraordinary headdress, well preserved in the back, and full complement of jewels and ornaments, point to the idea of wealth, which leads to prosperity.