Page 58 - Indian and Himalayan Art, March 15, 2017 Sotheby's NYC

254

A BRONZE FIGURE OF UMA
Southern India, Chola period, 10th Century

Height: 13 in. (33 cm)

PROVENANCE

Hagop Kevorkian, 26 June 1924
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade
Fund, 1924

EXHIBITED

“Medieval Indian Sculpture”, Pennsylvania Museum of Art,
Philadelphia, late November 1927–early February 1928.

“Bronzes of India and Greater India”, Rhode Island School of
Design, 2–30 November 1955.
The Cleveland Museum of Art, before 8 December 1997–9
February 1998 and 13 March 1998–20 May 2005.

LITERATURE

T. S., ‘A South Indian Bronze’ in The Bulletin of the Cleveland
Museum of Art, vol. 11, no. 8, October 1924, pp. 157–9.

W. M. M. et al., ‘In Memoriam: Jeptha Homer Wade’, in The
Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 13, no. 4, April
1926, illus. p. 79.

Bronzes of India and Greater India, Rhode Island School
of Design exh. cat., 1955, p. 11, no. 17. [Noticed in the
Connoisseur for April 1956, p. 220.]

‘The Indian Age of Bronze’ in Art Digest, November 1955,
illus. p. 16.

H. R. Zimmer, The Art of Indian Asia, Its Mythology and
Transformations, vol. II, New York, 1955, pl. 415a.

R. C. Majumdar, The History and Culture of the Indian People,
vol. 5, Bombay, 1957, p. 672, illus. p.. LVIII, g. 131.

W. M. Milliken, in Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art,
1958, no. 760.

The goddess standing in elegant tribhanga atop a lotus faced
plinth, her hands in the characteristic lola hasta and kataka
hasta mudras. She is richly ornamented with elaborately
fashioned girdle, multiple necklaces, armbands and bracelets.
The makara terminals of her earrings rest upon her slim
shoulders, with oral strands emanating from their gaping
mouths. The folds of her dhoti sway gently on either side of
her hips, one end arranged in a long sh tail pleat against her
inner leg. Her serene face with gently smiling lips radiates
bene cence.

The supple modeling of the gure and stylistic details such as
the short conical crown and small siraschakra at the back of
the deity’s head indicate an early Chola date for the sculpture.

$ 150,000-250,000

254 ( )

56 SOTHEBY’S