IMPORTANTE ET RARE STATUETTE DE PARVATI EN ALLIAGE DE CUIVRE
Inde du Sud, période Cola, vers XIIe siècle

A RARE LARGE COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF PARVATI
South India, Cola Period, ca. 12th century
The goddess is portrayed here standing in an elegant tribhanga pose. Her graceful figure is of slender yet voluptuous modelling with high rounded breasts, a pinched waist, and a supple belly. Her beguiling gaze, through long half-moon eyes, set within her gentle oval face. Her left arm lingers seductively in lolahasta mudra, mimicking the tail of a cow. Her right is bent, raising her hand in katakamukha mudra, once holding a separately cast flower. She wears a tall crown, called a karanda mukata, of piled rings diminishing in size and culminating in a lotus bud. The concentric patterns within her crown are repeated throughout her necklaces, armbands, girdle, and garment, embellishing the bronze's texture.
60cm (23 5/8in.) high
Footnotes:
南印度 朱羅王朝 約十二世紀 銅雪山女神立像

While the subject is modelled in the classic Chola idiom, this particular figure distinguishes itself by the lifelike fluidity of its stance, its amiable countenance, and the attention to detail its creator has lavished on the goddess's ornamentation. Bijoux cup the back of her ears. Luxurious locks of hair brush against her shoulders. Her tresses direct our gaze down towards the auspicious marriage string (mangalasutra) tied around her neck. A fine garment is tied with a fan-shaped splay above the small of her back, and decorative ribbons swirl across the front of her thighs. Uma—whose suprasensuous form embodies shakti, the primordial cosmic energy—is portrayed here in a sensitive and intimate interpretation of divine femininity. The sculpture is a testament to the technical genius of the artist, epitomizing the confident and time-honored aesthetic canon of the Chola empire.

Following Sivaramamurti's stylistic chronology, the figure exemplifies the mature Chola style of the 12th century. Her elongated makara earrings and shoulder tassels that no longer terminate in the shape of a pipal leaf are generally indicative of the 11th century or later (Sivaramamurti, South Indian Bronzes, New Delhi, 1963, pp.29-31). The lines accentuating her solar plexus and the relatively simple treatment of her bangles and necklaces are customary in the 12th and 13th centuries. A good, close stylistic comparison for this bronze is a 12th-century seated Uma which is part of a Somaskanda ensemble, published in Vidya Dehejia, The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola Bronzes from South India,, New York, 2002, p.131, no.16.

Provenance:
John & Berthe Ford Collection, Baltimore, by 1970
Robert Bigler, Zurich, 2008

Published:
Diran Dohanian, The Art of India: Sculpture, 1st century B. C. to 18th century A.D., Rochester, 1961, no. 56.
Pratapaditya Pal, Indo-Asian Art: The John Gilmore Ford Collection, Baltimore, 1971, no.19.

Exhibited:
The Art of India, The Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, 1961.

來源：
福特伉儷（John and Berthe Ford）珍藏，巴爾的摩，1970年
Robert Bigler，蘇黎世，2008年

出版：
Diran Dohanian，《The Art of India: Sculpture, 1st century B. C. to 18th century A.D.》，羅徹斯特，1961年，編號56
帕爾博士（Pratapaditya Pal），《Indo-Asian Art: The John Gilmore Ford Collection》，巴爾的摩，1971年，編號19

展覽：
《The Art of India》，羅徹斯特大學紀念美術館，1961年
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