Page 54 - Indian and Himalayan Art, March 15, 2017 Sotheby's NYC

248 249

248 A BLACK STONE FIGURE OF
BUDDHA CALLING THE EARTH TO
A CHLORITE HEAD OF BUDDHA WITNESS
Western India, Chalnkya period, Eastern India, Pala period, 9th/10th
7th-9th Century Century

Height: 9 ½ in. (24.1 cm) Himalayan Art Resources item no. 13418.
PROVENANCE Height: 12 in. (30.4 cm)
Heeramaneck Galleries, 17 March 1944.
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Edward L. PROVENANCE
Whitemore Fund, 1944
EXHIBITED Ernst Diez, acquired 27 October 1930.
“The Art of India”, The College of Wooster Art The Cleveland Museum of Art, Charles W.
Museum, Ohio, 5–27 April 1970. Harkness Endowment Fund, 1930
$ 12,000-18,000
LITERATURE
52 SOTHEBY’S
H. Hollis, ‘Indian Sculpture’, in The Bulletin of
the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 17, no. 10,
December 1930, illus. p. 198.

This iconic representation depicts Buddha
Shakyamuni at the moment of Enlightenment,
under the leaves of bodhi tree. His right hand
touches the earth in bhumisparsha mudra, calling
the earth to witness this event.

The outer edge of the stele is adorned with a
wave motif and a band of raised pearls. Following
the curve of the stele is an inscription with the
Buddhist creed, in poetical rendering:

Of all things sprung from a cause
The Buddha hath revealed the cause;
Likewise he reveals how each must end.
Such is the word of the Great Sage.

Under the double-lotus base is a stepped throne,
a kneeling female attendant gure with the
left hand raised in o ering, anked by a pair of
addorsed vyala.

Compare the current work with another Pala-
period black stone stele depicting the Buddha,
see D. Barrett, “A Group of Bronzes from the
Deccan,” Lalit Kala, 3-4 (1956-57) pp. 39-45,
pl. VII.

$ 40,000-60,000