Page 46 - Bonhams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art March 2019

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A RED SANDSTONE FIGURE OF A CELESTIAL BEAUTY A SANDSTONE FIGURE OF A CELESTIAL ATTENDANT
(SURASUNDARI) NORTH INDIA, CIRCA 12TH CENTURY
NORTH INDIA, 10TH/11TH CENTURY The base with a short, carved inscription.
20 1/2 in. (52 cm) high 20 3/4 in. (52.7 cm) high
$6,000 - 8,000 $5,000 - 7,000
This figure is not consciously posing, she is a surasundari, a celestial This limber celestial attendant offers the gesture of charity (varadam-
beauty whose presence on the exterior temple wall is auspicious. In udra) with his right hand. His left holds a waterpot, a symbol of purity
Hinduism, surasundaris strengthen the potency of prayers offered and divine blessing. He stands in the elegant tribhanga pose, which
in the temple as their beauty beckons the deity to listen to them. the sculptor has cleverly emphasized with a garland passing between
Produced in a 10th-/11th-century style seen in North Indian sculpture the shins. A relief of “Vishnu (sic)” almost certainly of the same origin,
particularly in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, this surasundari’s hair, was sold at Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 1 & 2 February 1963,
face, and jewelry are redolent of images of loving couples (mithuna) lot 133.
seen on the early-11th-century Chitragupta temple of Khajuraho, built
c.1025 (cf. Béguin, Khajuraho, Milan, 2017), and her lower garment Provenance
and sash are similar to that of a c.10th-century sculpture of Shiva in Estate of Dorothy Beskind (1917-2014), New York, acquired mid
the British Museum (1880.450). 1960s
Thence by descent
Provenance
Collection of John Edward Marshall, Massachusetts, acquired in 1968
Thence by descent
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