Page 74 - Christie's Inidian and HImalayan Works of Art, March 2019

654
A RED SANDSTONE FIGURE OF A MATRIKA
CENTRAL INDIA, UTTAR PRADESH, 5TH-6TH CENTURY
26º in. (66.7 cm.) high
$40,000-60,000

PROVENANCE
Sotheby’s New York, 24 September 1997, lot 164
Private collection, Japan

This powerful fgure of a female goddess holding a small child possibly iconography of the present fgure makes it impossible to identify which
represents one of the matrikas, or mother goddesses. As female personifcations matrika this fgure represents, although a lotus stalk might suggest Indrani,
of the powers of male Hindu deities, matrikas were initially represented as the female personifcation of Indra.
ferocious and dangerous, often shown eating children. In later traditions, they
come to represent protective motherly deities, and based on the benevolent The upright posture, wide hips, and treatment of the headdress demonstrate
appearance of the present fgure, one may surmise it belongs to the more the infuence of the earlier Mathuran style of the Kushan period (frst to fourth
peaceful tradition. The goddess wears a wrapped headdress centered with a century) on the developing Gupta style that arose in Central India in the fourth
circular emblem suspending a beaded tassel. Her long locks of hair are shown through seventh centuries. During this time, the more stif and schematic
resting on her shoulders, and she is adorned with a large beaded necklace modeling of the earlier Kushan period is slowly replaced with softer forms,
and two diferent types of earrings. In her proper left hand, she holds a small often in graceful contrapposto. The present fgure, with its sensuous round
child, who looks adoringly up at her face, and in her right hand she holds an proportions and elaborate treatment of the hair, perfectly encapsulates the
unidentifed implement, possibly the stalk of a lotus blossom. The incomplete nascent style of the Gupta period.

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