Page 56 - Indian and Himilayan Art

PROPERTY FROM A WEST COAST COLLECTION

245
A BLACK STONE FIGURE OF DURGA
MAHISHASURAMARDINI
KHMER, PRE-ANGKOR PERIOD,
7TH CENTURY

32æ in. (81.3 cm.) high

$30,000-50,000

PROVENANCE:

with Spink & Son, London,
by 2 November 1999.
Acquired from Christie’s New York,
20 September 2000, lot 154.

The present fgure is a very rare example
of this goddess from the pre-Angkor
period. Durga is shown as a benevolent
beauty, with broad shoulders, a smooth
torso with a slightly nipped-in waist, and
columnar limbs, the elegance of which
is emphasized by the lustrous color of
the stone.

This fgure is stylistically similar to two
other seventh-century fgures. Compare
with a Harihara, now at the Musée
national des Arts asiatiques-Guimet
(MG 14910, see H. Jessup and T. Zéphir,
Millennium of Glory, Washington, 1997,
p.164-5, cat.no.16). Both the Durga and
the Vishnu side of the Harihara wear
sampots in which the graceful pleating
that models the curve of the legs is
suggested by simply incised lines and
a rippled hem. The second comparable
is a very similar fgure of Durga, now
at the National Museum of Vietnamese
History in Ho Chi Minh City (BTLS 5552,
see J. Guy, Lost Kingdoms, New Haven,
2014, p.138, cat.65). Both goddesses
wear a tall mitre and a long sampot
incised to indicate pleats. The present
example appears more powerful due to
her broad shoulders, appropriate for the
battle against the bufalo demon that she
has just won.

See lot 250 for a slightly earlier example,
in gray sandstone.