Page 18 - Stone and Bronze, Indian art of the Chola Dynasty, Metropolitan Museum, NYC

FIGURE 17
Vishnu, 982. Gangajatadhara temple, Govinda-
puttur

The emblems are held more vertically, the disk still
with the edge forward. The front left hand is placed
no longer on the hip but next to it, touching the sash,
in a somewhat mannered pose. The twisted loop of the
sash is U-shaped; the belt clasp is a realistic lion mask.
An arch or mandorla (prabhavali) is carved in low
relief on the back panel, which almost fills the niche.
A superb bronze icon of Vishnu was acquired by
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in I962 (Figures I8-
2i).33 Crown, face, and chest are somewhat worn
through worship, but luckily eyes and eyebrows were
not recut, as happened so often. What the face has lost
in sharpness, it has gained in the softened expression of
remote kindness.
The image is in perfect condition-except for the loss
of the hair ornament (siraschakra) back, and perhaps
in
a club or mace (gada) on which the front left hand may
once have rested. The details, down to the last piece
ofjewelry, have retained an astonishing degree of their
pristine crispness. The bronze is a masterpiece of cast-
ing and chasing.
Perfectly balanced, the god stands erect in all his
iconic dignity and majesty but without any stiffness,
clad in a human body of eternal youth and beauty. His
additional arms-symbols of his manifold power-re-
mind us of his godly nature.
The face is egg-shaped, recalling the Melappaluvur
posture, we are struck by a certain stiffness and lifeless- relief; the lips are full. The god wears his usual
ness; the unmodeled torso is quite tubular. The bows elongated crown, nearly cylindrical in shape, with a
a
of the sash on the hips and its lateral ends are more rounded top surmounted by jewel. In front we de-
prominent; the front loop is twisted. The relief can be cipher the "face of glory" (kirttimukha: a lion mask
dated to the first half of the tenth century.32 spitting jewels) above two addorsed makara protomas;
The Vishnu relief on the Gangajatadhara temple this ornament seems to appear on the Pullamangai
(982) at Govindaputtur (Tiruchirappalli district) is relief as well. The splendid earrings as usual are in
considerably more modeled (Figure 17). We note the the shape of sea monsters (makaras); here strings of
stomach roll and the swelling calves. The posture is jewels flow from their mouths and cascade along the
more relaxed, the expression more gentle. The god has god's shoulders.
become more human-but he has lost most of his power There is the customary double necklace, and a tas-
and majesty. seled pendant hangs from the right shoulder. Each arm

32. Balasubrahmanyam, Four Chola Temples, calls it "late ninth 33. The Metropolitan Museum ofArt Bulletin 22 (I963-1964) p. 69;
century"; Barrett, Cola Bronzes, dates it "circa 940." Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America 17 (1963) p. 50, fig. 27.

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