Collection record · Small worlds
Palanquin Ring
The collection record classifies this work as sculpture. It is dated 1100s–1200s. Recorded culture or place: Cambodia, probably Angkor.
Explore the object recordOBJECT RECORD
A closer look at the details.
- Museum title
- Palanquin Ring
- Date
- 1100s–1200s
- Culture / origin
- Cambodia, probably Angkor
- Materials and technique
- bronze
- Dimensions
- Overall: 24.1 x 23 x 6.5 cm (9 1/2 x 9 1/16 x 2 9/16 in.)
- Artist / maker
- Not specified by the museum
- Museum
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Accession number
- 2011.151
FROM THE MUSEUM
In the museum’s words
The following description is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s original English record.
When members of the royal family or priesthood traveled in a public festival procession to make offerings at a temple or participate in a ceremony, they would be carried in a palanquin, or a covered litter. Portable objects of veneration, such as bronze images or a sacred fire, were also carried on palanquins. The palanquins had wooden poles, hanging seats or raised platforms, and bronze fittings cast in intricate forms and gilt, lending the palanquins a sumptuous quality.
This ring, which supported a suspended seat, would have hung on a hook attached to a wooden pole.
The body of the ring is shaped in the form of a pair of nagas, or serpents. The flanges, or protrusions, on the top and sides are stylized spines of the serpent’s body, and the heads rear up on either side. In a richly textured cluster of separately cast figures on both sides of the ring are images of composite bird-human, monkey-human, and elephant forms.
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Text and image sources
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Gift of Dr. Norman Zaworski · CC0
The summary is based on public collection data. Refer to the museum’s latest record for the title, date and attribution.
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