Page 197 - Christie's Asian Art Auctions PARIS December 2019

The expert craftsmen of the Chola period
produced fgures of the goddess Uma, as she is
addressed in Tamil Nadu, 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, Uma'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.