Throne leg with a mythical elephant-headed lion (Gajasimha Vyala)

ca. 1500 - 1700

Indian kings treasured elephants for their use in battle and as vehicles. They also treasured elephant ivory. The tusks of Indian elephants were too small to make items like this furniture leg, so the larger tusks of African elephants were used. This leg takes the form of a mythical lion-bodied creature, a common motif in the subcontinent’s sacred and royal art.

Ivory

16 1/4 x 3 3/4 x 4 1/2 in.

Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection

66.6

Now on view at the Asian Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, 50 Years: A Legacy of Asian Art, June 30, 1983 - May 30, 1984.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Images of Power, Dec. 19, 1986 - Sept. 21, 1987

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Documents International: Eleven Heads Are Better than One: Sixth Graders Connect with SAM, Apr. 1, 1999 - Apr. 2, 2000.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Boundless: Stories of Asian Art, Feb. 8, 2020 - ongoing.

Published ReferencesFuller, Richard E. "Seattle Art Museum: Accessions '66," in Seattle Post-Intelligencer / Northwest Today, January 22, 1967, illus.

"Art of Asian Recently Acquired by American Museums," in Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 21, 1967-68, p. 91, fig. 54

"Engagement Book." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1969, p. July 13

Lippe, Aschwin. "The Freer Indian Sculptures." Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1970, pls. 48-51

Pal, Pratapaditya. "Elephants and Ivories in South Asia." Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1981, no. 79, p. 109, illus. p. 84

Joice, Gail, Michael Knight, and Pamela McClusky. "Ivories in the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1987, no. 8, p. 12

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