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The great festival bronzes of South India reached a period of efflorescence during the Chola dynasty (9th - 13th centuries), known as the Golden Age of Tamil art. As part of Brahmanical ritual practice in South India, having been properly consecrated, bathed, dressed, and elaborately adorned, portable bronzes were carried out of the temple and into the city streets for all to see and be seen by the gods. Public processions allowed worshippers who were not permitted access into the restricted temple sanctums to engage in darshan, the mutually empowering exchange of gazes between humans and the divine. Although their adornments would cover all but their faces, Chola bronzes were cast with attention to the greatest level of detail. Figural forms display an idealized naturalism simultaneously blissful and restrained, the bodies graced with gently rippling garments and finely rendered jewelry that express the beauty within. Among these festival bronzes, depicted either individually or in groups (lot 251), figures of particular importance included various manifestations of Shiva (lots 220, 230, 251, 253, 254), Vishnu (lots 231, 240), Parvati (lots 229, 237, 251), and the Tamil Saints known as alvars, devotees of Vishnu (lots 233 and 239), and nayanars, devotees of Shiva (lot 238).
While bronzes from the Chola period are well known, a limited number of earlier bronzes are attested to be from the Pallava era. These display a heightened sense of movement and elongated slender limbs; a rare example is seen here (lot 223).
The practice of carrying festival bronzes in procession did not end with the Cholas; rather, under the Vijayanagara (14th-16th centuries) and Nayaka (16th-18th centuries) empires a new wave of processional bronzes was created. These at once continue the artistic conventions set forth in the Pallava and Chola periods while endowing the figures with more substantive proportions and a new range of decorative motifs, such as the fishtail fold centering the figure's dhoti in lot 233.
Springfield Museums
Springfield, Massachusetts
The Springfield Museums, located in the heart of the downtown, is the largest cultural attraction in western Massachusetts. The four museums - the Springfield Science Museum, the Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History, the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum and the Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts offer visitors a wide variety of exhibitions and programs in art, history and science throughout the year.
The two art museums were both founded by local private citizens - the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum in 1896, and the Museum of Fine Arts in 1934. The George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum represents one of the oldest and best examples of collecting in America during the Gilded Age. It was celebrated at the time by museum experts and philanthropists such as Andrew Carnegie, who called it "the finest single collection" he had ever seen. This Museum houses a strong Asian Art collection, which includes Chinese, Japanese, and Islamic decorative arts, and arms and armor from the Middle East and Japan. Particularly noteworthy is the unparalleled collection of Chinese ceramics and jade, including a cloisonné collection that is one of the largest in the world outside of China. At the Museum of Fine Arts, visitors can enjoy an overview of American and European Art. This Museum's holdings include significant 19th and 20th century American paintings as well as Old Master works, with a particular emphasis on French and Italian canvases.
Christie's is honored to present works chosen for deaccession by the Springfield Museums, the result of a lengthy process of the evaluation of the permanent collection. All funds realized through the sale of these objects will be used to build the acquisitions fund to add new works of art to the D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts' collection.
A bronze figure of Parvati
SOUTH INDIA, CHOLA PERIOD, CIRCA 13TH CENTURY
Details
A bronze figure of Parvati
South India, Chola period, circa 13th century
Standing in graceful tribangha on a double-lotus base over a square plinth with her right hand raised in katakamudra, dressed in a sheer dhoti incised with a lotiform pattern and secured with a festooned belt, adorned with various jewelry and the sacred thread, the face serene with gentle smile and elongated eyes surmounted by a foliate diadem and conical headdress, with locks of hair escaping over the shoulders and decorated with lotus blossoms
25 in. (63.4 cm.) high
South India, Chola period, circa 13th century
Standing in graceful tribangha on a double-lotus base over a square plinth with her right hand raised in katakamudra, dressed in a sheer dhoti incised with a lotiform pattern and secured with a festooned belt, adorned with various jewelry and the sacred thread, the face serene with gentle smile and elongated eyes surmounted by a foliate diadem and conical headdress, with locks of hair escaping over the shoulders and decorated with lotus blossoms
25 in. (63.4 cm.) high
Provenance
Collection of Mrs. Sutherland Orr (1856-1948), acquired in Madras, India by advice or gift of Dr. Thurston, Curator of the Madras Museum
Springfield Museum, MA, long-term loan since 1935, gifted thereafter
Springfield Museum, MA, long-term loan since 1935, gifted thereafter
Exhibited
On loan to the Springfield Museum of Art since 1935 (acc. no. 04.35)
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