Page 24 - Bonhams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art March 2019

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A WOOD PANEL OF A GANA A BUFF SANDSTONE PANEL OF DANCING GANESHA
SOUTH INDIA, PROBABLY KERALA, 17TH/18TH CENTURY NORTH INDIA, CIRCA 10TH CENTURY
16 1/2 in. (42 cm) high 16 1/2 in. (42 cm) high

$2,000 - 3,000 $2,000 - 3,000
The dwarf-like figure (gana) dances holding a boon and petaled vase. Dancing enthusiastically, Ganesha seems almost about to slide out
Gana are typically depicted at the top of columns supporting beams, from in between the two pillars of the panel’s niche. Accompanied by
or in the lower friezes of a sculpture as attendants to Ganesha in the his rat, Ganesha holds an axe and sample his ladoo with his trunk.
presence of Shiva. As noted by Kramrisch, “They dance and make The foliate triangle above the niche likely formed part of a candrasalika
music; they are forms of irrepressible joy of life”. (Manifestations of above, suggested by a closely related 10th-century example from
Shiva, Philadelphia, 1981, p.84). Another South Indian dancing wood Uttar Pradesh, published in Deva & Trivedi, Stone Sculptures in the
gana with four arms on a similar lotus platform is in the British Museum Allahabad Museum, Vol. 2, New Delhi, 1996, fig.62.
(1960,0225.4).
Provenance
Provenance Collection of John Edward Marshall, Massachusetts, acquired in 1968
Collection of John Edward Marshall, Massachusetts, acquired in 1968 Thence by descent
Thence by descent

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