Royal Female Donor

c. 1500

Royal Female Donor, c. 1500. Nepal. Bronze; overall: 15.4 cm (6 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift from Sarita Hopkins Weeks in Memory of her Mother Sara Sessions Hopkins 1978.89 Carrying a lamp in one hand, this female figure draped in finery was probably included as the donor of a sculptural group. She wears a complex headdress consisting of a network of beads and plaques joined together, ending in a bell at her forehead and crowning a long cloth that reaches to her waist. Her position on a lotus flower may indicate the transcendent state she attained as a result of the karmic merit of her donation. The pleated skirt tied with a scarf around her waist is characteristic of Nepal.