Page 22 - Bonhams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art March 2019

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A SILVER AND GILT-SILVER STANDARD FINIAL OF A MAKARA A BUFF SANDSTONE FIGURE OF DANCING GANESHA
NORTH INDIA, RAJASTHAN, 1800-1850 NORTH INDIA, 10TH/11TH CENTURY
10 5/8 in. (27 cm) long 33 1/2 in. (85 cm) high
$6,000 - 9,000 $30,000 - 50,000
Remarkably conceived and executed, the makara’s yawning mouth Musicians carved in low relief on the bottom corners of this stele
reveals an articulated tongue, jagged silver teeth, and a curling snout provide the rhythm for Ganesha’s elegant dance. Two diminutive
redolent of a fruit peeling open. The eyes are heightened by inset glass dancing figures of Ganesha add symmetry to the central subject, in a
and surface by reptilian scales worked with bands of punched designs. rare compositional feature. Despite their corpulent bellies, suggestive
of the prosperity Ganesha provides, all three seemingly move with
This makara head would have formed the finial of a processional standard, grace and a lightness of foot. One foot is placed before the other, with
serving as a royal insignia in Rajasthan. A related gilt copper fish standard the leg bent at the knee, while the head, torso, and lower body are
(mahi) employed by the Kotah Royal Court shares similar tooling of the ingeniously inclined in different directions to simulate the postures of
scales (Beach, Gods, Kings and Tigers, Zurich, 1997, p.210, no.68). dance.
Additionally, a stylized dragon head on the royal hunting barge of Maharoa
Arjun Singh shows the importance of animals as protective devices (ibid., A closely related example, in volume and movement, formerly of the
pp.19 & 20, no.19). Alsdorf Collection, is published in Pal, A Collecting Odyssey, Chicago,
1997, p.60 & 287, no.70. Also compare a stele of Dancing Ganesha
Provenance in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Kramrisch, Philadelphia Museum of
Pierre Jourdan-Barry Art: Handbook of the Collections, Philadelphia, 1995, p.51). Kramisch
Francesca Galloway, London, 2013 notes, “Ganesh dancing is the image that most fully conveys the
joyous wisdom he embodies, the knowledge that humans are one with
the Absolute.”

Provenance
Albert Rudolph, Rudi Oriental Arts, New York, 1970
Christie’s, New York, 13 September 2011, lot 260
Private Collection, New York

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