Nagarjuna (c. 150–250 CE) with a Buddhist Master

Unknown artist, c. 1300s

Download2636 × 3400 px View on a wall Edit

Medium: Gum tempera on sized cotton
Size: Overall: 57.8 x 45.1 cm (22 3/4 x 17 3/4 in.)
Culture: Nepal
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Nagarjuna, the Buddhist philosopher from southern India, sits on his eponymous red and black serpents, or naga. His interlocutor may be his disciple Aryadeva. A volume of the Perfection of Wisdom, honored with flowers, is on a golden bookstand between their heads. The figures sit beneath flowering and fruiting trees with peacocks and parrots, evoking the landscape of India. Lineage masters of the Sakya order of Buddhism are aligned in the top row, beginning with Virupa at the upper right. The monk who was the donor of this painting is in the lower left corner.