Page 26 - Bonhams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art March 2019

825
A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF DEVI
SOUTH INDIA, KERALA, 16TH CENTURY
14 1/8 in. (35.9 cm) high
$15,000 - 20,000
This ornate Keralan bronze depicts an ample-bodied goddess with a
crown of blooming lotuses. Her floral imagery, left-sided tilt, and tall
throne back with a single ornamented edge on the right, indicate this
goddess probably once flanked the proper left side of her consort
Krishna or Vishnu, and identifies her as Satyabhama or Bhudevi,
Hinduism’s Earth Goddess.

The bronze is almost identical to a goddess in the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art (M.2005.73), however the lotus buds of the LACMA
piece have yet to unfurl. Pal suggests the latter might have flanked
Vishnu’s right, representing his other consort Lakshmi (Pal, The Divine
Presence, Los Angeles, 1978, p.19). The two bronzes seem a likely
pair except for the hands holding the flower stems, which do not form
a symmetrical match. Nonetheless, the two certainly originate from the
same workshop and period.

A later pair of goddesses in the Norton Simon Museum of Art show
similar treatment of the base, physiognomy, and body chain in the
Keralan style (Pal Art of the Indian Sub-Continent, Pasadena, 2003,
p.305, nos.227A&B).

Provenance
Private Collection of Jean-Claude Moreau-Gobard (1921-2005), Paris
Thence by descent

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