Page 27 - Sotheby's Indian Himalayan and Southeast Asian Wroks of Art March 2019

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PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF RADHA
Eastern India, Orissa, 15th Century
the figure stands on a waisted lotus pedestal in
an elegant tribhanga (triple flexion), her long,
braided hair swinging with the movement of her
head, her right hand raised and holding a lotus
bud, wearing elaborate jewelry including large,
circular earrings, bracelets, anklets, necklaces,
rings on her fingers and toes and a decorative
belt from which emerges the fan-shaped end of
her dhoti
Height 12⅜ in. (31.5 cm.)
PROVENANCE
Sotheby’s New York, March 19, 2008, lot 295.
EXHIBITED
Devi, The Great Goddess, Female Divinity in
South Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, March
28-September 6, 1999.
LITERATURE
Vidya Dehejia, Devi The Great Goddess, Female
Divinity in South Asian, Smithsonian Institution,
1999, p. 329, cat no. 77.
Radha, whose name means ‘prosperity’, was chief
among the gopis (milkmaids) and favorite consort
of Krishna. According to popular legends she
was not officially married to Krishna but rather
to a cowherd and here she is depicted playfully
beckoning with her lotus bud to Venugopala,
or Krishna as the flute playing cowherd, which
would have formed a companion sculpture to this
piece. The coy tilt of her head, the swing of her
hips and the beckoning fingers of her right hand
beautifully epitomize a young woman basking in
the adoration of her lover.

$ 50,000-70,000

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