Page 57 - Christies Alsdorf Collection Part 1 Sept 24 2020 NYC

establish an independent sultanate called Ma’bar; it
lasted till the founder of Vijayanagara put an end to
it and reestablished temple worship of the type that
existed under the Cholas. Early in that intervening
period, inscriptions from once famous Chola temples,
like Tiruvenkadu, speak of festivals and rituals being
re-inaugurated through generous donations from the
Pandya rulers of Madurai. While bronze workshops
would have found themselves short of work, and many
wax modellers and bronze-casters must have moved
away, a few centers clearly continued working after
Chola rule crumbled.
When the Vijayanagara rulers took charge of Chola
temples that had lost their ardent crowds of devotees,
and hence their vitality, they commenced the process
of commissioning new bronzes to replace those that
were lost in the tumultuous century that preceded
Vijayanagara rule. These new bronzes tend to have
cylindrical limbs, elongated bodies, and firm stances.
This Uma is not Vijayanagara, but neither is she purely
late Chola; she appears to belong to the cusp between
the two, and to the century that intervened between the
two apparently “easy” labelling systems of “Chola” and
“Vijayanagara.” More importantly, this bronze Uma
has a commanding presence, and an aura of authority,
that testifies to her creation by a talented artist. There is
indeed a startling difference between the soft breasts of
Umas of the early Chola period and these breasts raised
high with pronounced nipples. Perhaps one may resort
to the use of European terminology to ask whether
viewers prefer the more restrained style of Renaissance
art or the exuberance of the Baroque? Artists creating
images for Tamil temples of the thirteenth century
onwards were clearly responding to a change in taste as
they strove to please their new clientele.

55