Ascetic Holding a Skull
450–550
- Medium
- gilt bronze
- Dimensions
- Overall: 19.4 cm (7 5/8 in.); Figure: 18.1 cm (7 1/8 in.)
- Genre
- Sculpture
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Styles
Tags
China, Northern Wei dynasty (386-534)
About
The figure holding the skull has been identified as Mrgasirsa, who sought Buddha’s teaching on how to determine the karma and transmigration of the arhats. Mrgasirsa appears with Vasistha in some of the wall paintings of the Mogao grottoes in Dunhuang.