Masterworks from India and Southeast Asia

This publication highlights masterworks from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art’s Asian galleries. Spanning two millennia and the breadth of southern Asia, the thirty-seven masterworks presented in this book introduce sculptures created in stone and bronze, richly carved wooden architecture, vibrant paintings, luxurious textiles and furniture as diverse in style as the cultures they represent. The works fall in to two general categories: art for religious use, associated with Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism; and courtly and decorative arts, associated with the Mughal and Rajput courts. 

Highlights include Buddhist reliefs created in Pakistan during the second century CE; a thirteenth-century bronze sculpture of Shiva Nataraja, the Lord of Dance, from Southern India; a serene Standing Buddha from the Dvaravati culture in Thailand (6^th-11^th century CE); highly detailed pages from the Gulshan Album, created in the early 17^th century for the Mughal Emperor Jahangir; and a pair of silver thrones made for the ruler of Dungarpur, Rajastan, in the early 20^th century.