Page 36 - Bonhams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art March 2019

834
A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF PARVATI
SOUTH INDIA, TAMIL NADU, VIJAYNAGARA PERIOD,
15TH CENTURY
15 1/2 in. (39.3 cm) high
$30,000 - 50,000
Parvati is the divine companion of Shiva, representative of fertility, love, and devotion.
Considered the epitome of female perfection, particularly as it expresses itself in alignment
with marital, societal, and dharmic concord, she is beloved as the ideal maiden, wife, and
mother. Moreover, through the prism of Shaktism, she is the active animating force, enliven-
ing her counterpart Shiva with skill, power, and prowess.

This bronze’s simplified treatment of the jewelry, facial type, and base compare favorably
with a Sri-Devi in the Ford Collection, see Pal, Indo-Asian Art, Tokyo, 1971, no.19, and a
Chandikesvara published in Sivaramamurti, South Indian Bronzes, New Delhi, 1963, pl.73b.
However, the distinctive three tier sashes that fall down her thighs and her robust form fol-
low conventions common in Vijaynagara, as exemplified by a Kaliya-Krishna (Ibid., pl.83b)
and a Cosmic Form of Krishna in the Norton Simon Museum (Pal, Art from the Indian
Subcontinent, Pasadena, 2003, p.275, no.199).

Provenance
Jaipaul Galleries, Philadelphia, by 1970
Private Philadelphia Collection, 1970s – 2014
Sotheby’s, New York, 19 March 2014, lot 45

34 | BONHAMS