Reopening of South Asian Galleries
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Hall from the Madanagopalaswamy Temple, Madurai, South India, circa 1560, granitic stone. Gift of Susan Pepper Gibson, Mary Gibson Henry and Henry C. Gibson in memory of Adeline Pepper Gibson, 1919-714. Photo by Joseph Hu.
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Guests enjoy Shahzia Sikander’s contemporary animation of The Rose Garden of Love (center), inspired by the original 1743 manuscript displayed in vitrine (at right), seen in close detail through a replica of the fragile manuscript (at left).
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Artist unknown, Krishna and Radha, c. 1750, opaque watercolor and gold on cotton. Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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Mosaics and woven textiles capture the attention of guests wandering in the Safavid Court.
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Artist unknown, Processional Face of the God Bhairava, c. 16th century, mercury-gilded copper alloy with rock crystal, paint, foil, and glass decoration. Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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Visitors compare patterns in Persian mosaics with textile and ceramic works from the Safavid period. Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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A Lion Kills Prasenajit in the Jungle, c. 1775, Nepal, Stella Kramrisch Collection, 1994-148-613. Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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Guests use interactive digital gallery guides that show additional images, video, and text to better explore objects within the exhibition space.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art reopens its eight South Asian art galleries, featuring nearly 3,000 works spanning over 2,500 years. The fully reinterpreted and reinstalled galleries will offer visitors an opportunity to immerse themselves in diverse cultures of the past and present through vivid storytelling, powerful images, and digital interactives. Stretching from Tibet and Nepal through India, Iran, Thailand, and Cambodia, the collection includes a stone temple hall from southern India, courtly Indian miniature paintings, ornate Buddhist works from Tibet and Nepal, colorful textiles, and lively temple sculpture.