Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Drum slab with five Buddha life narratives
India, Nagarjunakonda, Gunter District, Andhra Pradesh
Not on view
Drum panels from the stupas at Nagarjunakonda are notable for their complex narrative decoration, featuring multiple registers, each of which often contain two independent scenes. The stories typically have a loose chronological order. This panel depicts five events, all following the Buddha’s Enlightenment: the Buddha gazing upon his empty throne (lower left), the serpent-protected Buddha preaching (lower right), the Buddha receiving gifts from the gods (middle left) and the first meal from the traveling merchants (middle right), and the Buddha delivering his first sermon, in the deer forest at Sarnath (above). The sculptor deploys posture and gesture to create a sense of spatial depth and dynamic interplay.
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