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

**Unknown artist**  
c. 1300s  
gum tempera on sized cotton  
Overall: 57.8 x 45.1 cm (22 3/4 x 17 3/4 in.)

Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1985.186. [The museum's record](https://clevelandart.org/art/1985.186).

## About this work

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.

_Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art._

An unrecorded Nepal artist painted this in about 1300s. It is now at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

### How it was made

- **Opaque watercolour.** Watercolour made opaque with white or chalk and laid in flat, even layers. Persian and Indian painters ground their colours from minerals, applied them with the finest brushes and burnished the finished page.
- **Tempera.** Pigment bound with egg yolk. It dries in minutes and can’t be blended wet, so painters built up form with fine, hatched strokes. It was Europe’s main panel technique before oil.

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- Culture: Nepal
- Real size: about 23 × 18 in (58 × 45 cm). The 18 × 24 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 13th century
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/723.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/723/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/nagarjuna-c-150-250-ce-with-a-buddhist-master-cma-152324).