Page 62 - Bonhams Indian and Himalayan Art September 2013

81 81
A black stone panel with an elephant
82 Rajasthan, 12th/13th century
60 | Bonhams Carved with a dynamic elephant with crisply carved caparison and an
apsara below a band of musicians.
13 in. (33 cm) long
$4,000 - 6,000

In it’s original context the elephants would have most likely appeared as
the right-hand arch of a Gajalakshmi stele, lustrating the goddess below.
Stylistically, it recalls the black-stone sculptures produced in the region
of Mount Abu in southwest Rajasthan. Compare to a stele of Krishna
published in Simon Ray, London, 2003, no. 7, pp. 28-31.

Provenance:
Private Pittsburgh Collection

82
A green stone head of Vishnu
Kashmir, circa 800 CE
His pacific expression with slender eyes framed by pendant earrings and
hair in short corkscrew curls surmounted by a triple crescent diadem with
beads and foliage around flower-head medallions and a lotus blossom
crowning the top of the head.
7 1/8 in. (18 cm) high
$15,000 - 20,000

With the remnants of the ear and whiskers of a lion’s face to his
left, this piece was almost certainly part of a Vishnu Vaikuntha
Chaturmukha configuration. While their is no consensus on its meaning
and identification, the figure was popular in Kashmir and may have
emphasized Vishnu as Supreme Being, see Srinivasan, Many heads, arms,
and eyes: origin, meaning, and form of multiplicity in Indian art, New
York, 1997. A closely related example with near identical treatment of the
crown is held in the Brooklyn Museum of Art (85.223.1).

Provenance:
Private European Collection

83
A black stone stele of Gajalakshmi
Kashmir, Karkota period, 9th century
Enthroned beneath a lustrating elephant, the goddess sits with her left
leg folded and her pendant right foot resting on a neatly-defined lotus,
she wears slippers, a thin garment, which pleats and clings around her
sensuous form, and a shawl covering her head and draping about her
elbows, and is adorned with armlets, beaded necklaces, large earrings,
and a triple-crescent tiara with festoons, in her left hand she holds the
robust stem of a lotus supporting a vase of plenty overflowing with
flora, to her left stands a chauri bearer in tribangha pose on the plinth
supported by two jubilant lions flanking adoring devotees holding
upturned vessels similar to that in the elephant’s trunk.
10 3/4 in. (27.3 cm) high
$15,000 - 25,000

‘Gaja’ meaning ‘elephant’, the Gajalakshmi form is among the most
cherished Hindu subjects, imbued with iconography supporting Lakshmi
as the goddess of prosperity, well-being, and abundance. The upturned
water pots held by the elephant above and figures below allude to
the rainfall and rivers which bring forth crops and harvests. The purna
kalasha (vase of plenty) blossoming form her lotus is an early Vedic
motif for the source of life. For variations on the subject from Kashmir
compare the present lot to two held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
(1991.407.2 & 1993.194).

Provenance:
Private European Collection