Page 70 - 2019 September 11th Christie's New York Chiense Art Himalayan bronzes and art

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE NEW YORK CITY COLLECTION
328
A BRONZE FIGURE OF A CHAKRA
SOUTH INDIA, TAMIL NADU, CHOLA PERIOD, 11TH-12TH CENTURY
12æ in. (32.4 cm.) high

$40,000-60,000

PROVENANCE
William H. Wolf, Inc., New York.
Sotheby’s New York, 27 March 1991, lot 56.

Among the South Indian sculptural traditions, bronze sculptures depicting 2c, 3b and 3c. Also compare the current work with a circa ffteenth-century
non-fgural subjects are exceedingly rare. The present lot depicts a bronze example of a bronze chakra shrine in the Government Museum, Chennai,
chakra, one of the four main attributes of Vishnu (and his avatars) including the illustrated by R. Kannan, Manual on the Bronzes in the Government Museum,
lotus, the conch shell and the mace. Chennai, 2003, p. 180-182, SI. No. 13.
It is possible that the current work was part of a larger assemblage, similar The artisans of the Chola period used the cire perdue or lost-wax casting
to another thirteenth-century bronze chakra from the Collection of Anthony technique. The fgure or subject to be cast is frst modeled in malleable
d’Ofay, sold at Christie’s New York, 19 September 2002, lot 50 (Fig. 1); or it beeswax, and the fne details carved and incised with a stylus. Once ready, the
may have been created as part of a larger aniconic set representing Vishnu’s image is hardened in cold water and covered with several layers of clay, which
four attributes. The chakra rests upon a lotus base, with beaded edges and is then fred, allowing the wax to melt and escape through sprues, leaving a
twenty-one faming spokes. At the center of the sculpture is a kirtimukha hollow clay mold. The mold is then flled with molten bronze and allowed to
or face of glory, encircled by lotus petals, a decorative motif repeated in the cool. Once the clay is broken away, the result is a nearly fnished bronze image,
d’Ofay example. which awaits the fnishing work from the artisan casters.
The overall composition and fame motif provide a rubric for dating the The artisans themselves were required to take rites of abstinence during the
sculpture. Chakras from the Chola period, more widely visible in Vishnu casting process, thus ensuring ritual purifcation of the images themselves (V.
sculptures, were adorned with openwork spokes and a four-fame motif, as Dehejia, Chola: Sacred Bronzes of Southern India, London, 2006, p. 21). Unlike
represented in the current work. Only in the late Vijayanagara period are other bronze casting traditions where a clay or plaster model is retained, this
chakras adorned with tassels and other appendages—for further discussion, particular form of bronze casting makes each work unique.
see C. Sivaramamurti, South Indian Bronzes, New Delhi, 1963, pp. 38-39, fgs.

A bronze chakra; South India, Chola Dynasty, 13th Century; 18¼ in.
(46.4 cm.) high; sold at Christie’s New York, 19 September 2002, lot
50, sold for US $14,340.

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