Page 38 - Irving Collection Part II Chinese Art

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L A C Q U E R • J A D E • B R O N Z E • I N K T H E R V I N G C O L L E C T I O N 髹金飾玉 - 歐雲伉儷珍藏

1101 A SILVER-INLAID BRONZE FIGURE OF GANESHA
INDIA, HIMACHAL PRADESH, 10TH-11TH CENTURY

Seated in lalitasana on the backs of two addorsed lions, holding his broken
tusk and a bowl of sweets in his primary hands and a goad and a noose in
the others, adorned with a sacred thread across his prominent belly, his
elephant-form head surmounted by a foliate tiara, all backed by a conjoined
nimbus and aureole
5æ in. (14.5 cm.) high, stand
$40,000-60,000
PROVENANCE
The Pan-Asian Collection (Christian Humann, d. 1981), New York, by 1981.
Robert H. Ellsworth, New York, 12 September 1989.
The Irving Collection, no. 2860.
EXHIBITED
On loan to the Denver Art Museum, by 1981.
This sculpture from Himachal Pradesh from the tenth and eleventh
centuries is stylistically comparable to that of Kashmir, unsurprising given
the proximity of the two regions: the hill-town of Chamba, where many
of the most important bronze fgures originate, is less than two hundred
miles from the Vale of Kashmir. Some stylistic and iconographical
characteristics, however, do diferentiate between the two regions. The
conjoined aureole of Himachal Pradesh bronzes, for instance, is usually
fat and unadorned, in contrast to those of Kashmir, which are often
incised with fames. The streamers or ribbons that extend from either
side of the torso are also commonly found in Himachal bronzes, and less
so in those of Kashmir. Iconographically, bronzes of Himachal Pradesh
depict Ganesha seated on the backs of two lions, rather than a rat, which
is his more commonly represented vahana, or vehicle. This iconographic
choice seems to be limited to Himachal Pradesh and is not generally
found in other Indian sculpture.

Compare the present sculpture’s lion-mount and aureole with an example
from a private collection, illustrated by U. von Schroeder in Indo-Tibetan
Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, p. 151, no. 27B, as well as its crown and overall
modeling with two additional examples illustrated by M. Postel, et al.,
Antiquities of Himachal, Bombay, 1985, p. 102, fgs. 122 and 124.
印度 喜馬偕爾邦 十至十一世紀 銅嵌銀象頭神坐像

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