Buddha (Fire & Water)

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A Venetian blown glass artwork in the form of a seated Buddha. The Buddha's hands are in the "earth witness" hand position, his right hand on right knee with fingers pointing to the ground, and his left hand raised with the palm flat. The Buddha is a translucent blue. A female figure is seated on the Buddha’s left palm, her barefoot legs extending down either side of the Buddha’s hand, her right arm pointing down towards the earth and her left hand raised with the palm flat. The female figure is blown glass in a deep brown color. The figure is wrapped with peyote-stitched beads in vivid colors of red, orange and yellow, placed around the woman’s figure in a way to suggest flickering flames. In the center of the Buddha’s torso, on the interior of the glass, is a beaded hand with fingers uncurling from the center to point slightly upward.

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