Page 8 - Christies Indian and Himalayan Art Sept 2015

IndIan Sculpture 63
A BRONZE FIGURE OF PARVATI
6 SOUTH INDIA, CHOLA PERIOD, 12TH CENTURY

Delicately cast in tribhanga over a circular lotus base, her right
hand raised and her left extended along her hip, clad in a long
dhoti with incised circular pattern and tied at her waist with a sash,
her upper torso adorned with beaded necklaces and a harness, her
arms with armlets and bracelets, her face with gentle countenance
fanked by elongated earlobes and surmounted by a high conical
headdress, with a rich green patina overall
20¿ in. (51 cm.) high

$200,000-300,000

PROVENANCE:

Collection of C.T Loo, Paris, acquired by 1938
Collection of Dr. W.M. Houwing, Amsterdam, acquired by 1940
By descent to present owner

EXHIBITED:

Sculptures Indiennes De La Collection C.T. Loo À Paris, Kunsthandel
C.van Lier, Amsterdam, 3 September - 1 October 1938
Wat onze verzamelaars onlangs hebben verworven, Museum for
Asiatic Art, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, February 1940
Kunstbezit van oud-alumni der Leidse Universiteit, Stedelijk Museum
de Lakenhal, Leiden, June 1950

PUBLISHED:

K. Van Lier, Sculptures Indiennes de la collection C.T. Loo à Paris,
1938, cat. no.5.
Anonymous, ‘Bulletin van de Vereeniging van vrienden der
Aziatische Kunst’: Maandblad voor de beeldende kunsten, 1940,
Vol.17, pp.63-64, fg.A
H.F.E Visser, Asiatic Art in Private Collections in Holland and
Belgium, Amsterdam, 1948, p.193, fg.331
Anonymous, Kunstbezit van oud-alumni der Leidse Universiteit,
1950, p.62, fg.230

The expert craftsmen of the Chola period produced fgures of the
goddess Parvati that are among the most sensuous images in the
corpus of Indian art. With a curvaceous fgure and wearing the
ornaments of a queen, the goddess is the embodiment of the ideals of
Indian beauty. In Tamil poetry of the bhakti saints, Parvati’s exquisite
beauty is espoused through metaphors of the beauties found in nature:
her thighs are tapered like the plantain tree, her waist is slender like
a creeper, her breasts as if golden vessels flled with the nectar of the
gods, and her elegant gait expressed through the tribhanga evocative
of a peacock.

Unusual and especially beautiful details in the present work include
the goddess’ long dhoti with its pattern of circular motifs. Similar
patterns seen in earlier works, for example that of the Uma in the
Cleveland Museum of Art, in which the dhoti of the Uma dated circa
950 is decorated with bands of circles, perhaps stylized lotuses in
cross-section, alternating with bands of undulating vine motifs (see
V. Dehejia, The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola Bronzes from South
India, 2002, p.123, fg.12). A fgure of Sita from the Linden-Museum
in Stuttgart dated to circa 980, shares the bands of circles in her dhoti,
this time alternating with bands of triangular motifs, as well as similar
treatment of the jewelry, notably the elaborate necklace and jeweled
harness (see ibid., 2002, p.191, fg.47). With both the present work
and the Linden Sita, the artist has emphasized the attenuation of
the waist which gives way to rounded hips and lithe legs. Combined
with elongated graceful arms and pert breasts, the goddess is the
embodiment of youthful femininity.