Page 12 - 2019 September 11th Christie's New York Chiense Art Himalayan bronzes and art

I remember when the sale was announced by Christie’s, Dick asked (lot 317), though painted as a pilgrim’s memento likely around the
me if there was anything I thought was suitable for the LACMA turn of the twentieth century, is a fine example of the traditional
collection and I jocularly said, “The entire lot.” Characteristically religious icons of the principal deities of the Jagannath (from which
Dick responded that he was not a “Norton Simon,” but he would is derived the English word “Juggernaut”) triad of the famous
try his best. In fact, all three sculptures, as well as the diminutive Puri temple.
but charming dancing ferocious lady in bronze from Central Java,
In the amazing seventeenth century painting from the great
Indonesia (lot 307) – also in “The Sensuous Immortals” exhibition–
epic the Ramayana (the story of Rama) (lot 312), we encounter a
would have considerably augmented the LACMA collection.
meeting between Rama with the simian tribes having a pow-wow,
It would not be possible for me to discuss the individual objects in which makes an interesting comparison with the two other court
detail, which will be done in the catalogue. Sufice it to comment and palace scenes from the Pahari schools (lots 314 and 315) for
on a couple of them. Among the sculptures of particular interest their urbane, diferent styles, compositional complexities and
is the relatively large and intact relief of the Seven Dancing richer iconographies. For subject matter, the most unusual is the
Matrikas or Mother Godesses (lot 305) bracketed by the dancing amusing picture of a group of roaming ascetics gathering below
Shiva holding a stringed instrument, or the vina, and the elephant a tree on a hill for a bit of relaxation and recreation, preparing
headed god Ganesha, also dancing. Although they face the viewer and indulging in an opiate refreshment known as bhang in Hindi
we must imagine them as moving in procession, as they did in (lot 311).
the groom’s party when Shiva went to meet his bride Parvati in
Thus, even in so limited a number of pictures we get a glimpse
the Himalayas in a well-known myth. As far as I know, not only is
of both the spiritual and quotidian life of feudal India of the last
this the earliest relief portraying the group outside India but the
four centuries of history through millenniums-old mythology and
individual figures are remarkably well preserved and lively, and,
tradition. From both the sculptures and the paintings, one can
eminently worthy of a museum collection.
see how, as the Indian art scholar Benjamin Rowland (1905–1972)
What is distinctly clear from the group of sculptures acquired observed, over two millennia the realm of the sacred is “presented
by the Sherwoods is their love for the body in motion. They were as contemporary experience” and how Indian art “has always been
obviously fond of music and dance as may be noted from several more or less a national art determined by the wish to have certain
figures, other than the Dancing Mothers they acquired, including groups of ideas constantly represented” [5].
the solitary fragmentary relief from Gandhara (lot 303) in the
To this I would add that Indian artists were always interested in the
northwest of the subcontinent and later examples in wood. In no
‘universal’ rather than the “particular” and to express the formless
other tradition of religious art anywhere have artists expressed
through form and metaphysical through the physical by art until
the union of the sensual and the spiritual with such candor and
the disruptive age of “modernism.”
subtlety as in these tableaus.
I personally have no regret that the group of Indian art works
While the stone sculptures were all used in public architectural
ofered here from the Sherwood collection, whatever their
and religious contexts to serve devotional and didactic purposes,
original intent, are now available for institutions and collectors
the Indian paintings in the collection are from a much later period
to acquire. Objects of art, I have noticed over a long engagement
and were made for a diferent purpose. All were executed between
with them, seemingly have itchy feet, and so it should be. No
the seventeenth and the early twentieth century in opaque
narrow, artificially “national” boundaries should be allowed to
watercolors on paper for private and individual patrons for both
obstruct their free movement, nor should they languish unseen in
spiritual edification and personal pleasure. Because of their small
subterranean storages in museums. Better for them all to move on
size, they are often erroneously referred to as “miniatures” but
(charaiveti), to keep moving (charaiveti).
viewers must realize that they are diferent from the type of work
designated by that word in the western pictorial tradition.
The four pictures in horizontal format are illustrations from books
or picture albums that continued the shape of ancient sacred
books written on palm leaves, while the two vertical pictures
did not form parts of either albums or books. In fact, the earliest
example (lot 316) once belonged to a sacred book of the Jains 1. John Rosenfield (ed.) 1996. The Arts of India and Nepal: The Nasli and Alice
Heeramaneck Collection. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts.
and continues the format of the older palm-leaf manuscripts. The
illustration from a Bhagavat Purana series (lot 313), on the other 2. Pratapaditya Pal. 2019. “Nasli Heeramaneck: The Consummate Collector and
Connoisseur” in Arts of South Asia: Cultures of Collecting, p. 151-177. Gainsville: The
hand, is a fine transfer on paper of a much older scroll painting on
University of Florida Press.
cloth known in Sanskrit as a pata, depicting scenes from the life of
3. Pratapaditya Pal N.d. [1977]. The Sensuous Immortals: Asian Art from the Pan-Asian
the popular Hindu god, Krishna. The oldest examples of such long
Collections. Los Angeles: LACMA.
narrative scrolls can be seen in the early Buddhist monuments
such as the toronas (gateways) of Sanchi around the beginning 4. See. n.2
of the Common Era and survives today in earlier cloth examples 5. Benjamin Rowland 1977 (1953). The Art and Architecture of India Buddhist-Hindu-Jain.
of Nepal and in the East Asian hand scrolls. The Orissan painting Harmondsworth (UK) Penguin Books, Ltd: 354-55.
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