A FINE BLACK STONE STELE OF DURGA MAHISHASURAMARDINI, PALA PERIOD, 11TH-12TH CENTURY

拍品描述

A FINE BLACK STONE STELE OF DURGA MAHISHASURAMARDINI, PALA PERIOD, 11TH-12TH CENTURY This lot is from a single owner collection and is therefore offered without reserve Northeastern India. Finely and deeply carved, Durga stands in pratyalidhasana, with one leg planted on the beast’s back, and the other extended over her lion mount. Her waist and limbs are slender, while her breasts are firm and round. The buffalo demon lies beheaded at Durga’s feet, with Mahishasura emerging in his anthropomorphic form from the slain animal. Her array of arms brandishing weapons connotes her many powers, while the pronounced musculature of her stomach reveals the tension in her body. As she braces her foot against the back of the dead beast and raises her sword to dispatch the final blow, she uses her divine strength to plunge the trisula into Mahisha. Eyes wide with intensity, Durga has a smile that lends sweetness to her otherwise wrathful appearance, flanked by matrika assisting in the battle, and above the lotus base carved with fully articulated petals and held up by devotees and dancing figures including Chamunda. Important Note: For essential information on the Jorgen Ruben Gallery Ledger and provenance documentation please visit here: www.zacke.at/rubencollection_ledger Dimensions: Height 59 cm Fitted on an associated wall hanger. (2) Durga puja, or the festival of Durga’s victory of good over evil, is one of the most celebrated festivals in eastern India. In Bengal, Durga is considered the daughter of every home and the festivities celebrate her return to her parents with her children, where for five days she is adored, worshipped and celebrated. The festival marks the battle between Durga and the powerful buffalo demon Mahishasura. A pious devotee of Brahma, Mahishasura was rewarded with a boon that no man or god would be able to conquer him. Thus invincible, he battled the gods and took over the heavens. The gods appealed to the goddess Parvati, who agreed to harness the shakti of all female celestial beings and create Durga, who is bestowed with all the weapons from the gods and a lion for her vehicle. After nine days of battle, Durga vanquished Mahishasura and his army and restored the heavens to the gods. The worship of a mother goddess as the source of life and fertility has ancient roots, but the text Devi Mahatmya (Glory of the Goddess), composed during the fifth and sixth centuries, led to the dramatic transformation of the female principle into a goddess of great cosmic power. Later, textual sources generally refer to this form of Durga as Mahishasuramardini. She remains the most important and popular form of the goddess, also referred to as Devi or Shakti. The present sculpture of Mahishasuramardini is a brilliant and important example of Brahmanical sculpture from the Pala period. Between the eighth and the twelfth centuries, the regions of Bihar and Bengal (presently Bangladesh and India) were politically and culturally unified under the reign of the Pala kings. Stone sculptures from these regions are of grey or black schist and it is believed that the grey stone originates in the Gaya region of Bihar and the black and more dense stone is found primarily in the eastern Bihar and Bengal. The origin of the Pala school of sculpture can be traced to various stylistic sources, including Mathura-Kushana prototypes from the early centuries of the Common Era to the late fifth century Gupta idiom of Sarnath and related sites. Some of the earliest known depictions of Mahishasuramardini are small stone images from Mathura where the goddess is seen killing the buffalo demon or standing peacefully with sun and moon on either side, indicating her presiding over day and night. Other earlier examples are from the entrance to caves 6 and 17 at Udayagiri in Madhya Pradesh from the fourth to fifth centuries and from Aphsad in the seventh century. According to Claudine Buatze-Picron in her discussion on the Hindu images from this region, “As a close study of some of the forms reveals, the [iconography] was not for once and ever fixed but underwent transformations in the course of time; starting in Bihar, the movement reached its apex in north Bengal from the 10th century onwards (Claudine Bautze-Picron and Gouriswar Bhattacharya. The Art of Eastern India: In the Collection of the Museum Für Indische Kunst, Berlin: Stone & Terracotta Sculptures, D. Reimer, 1998, p. 12). Literature comparison: Compare a closely related phyllite stele depicting the same subject, 81.9 cm high, dated 12th century, in the Dallas Museum of Art, object number 2009.17. Compare a closely related stone stele depicting Durga Killing the Buffalo Demon, Pala empire, dated 11th-12th century, 87.5 cm high, in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, object number AK-RAK-1992-1. A smaller stele depicting the same subject, dated ca. 11th century, 29.2 cm high, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 91.21.' Auction result comparison: Type: Closely related Auction: Bonhams New York, 19 March 2012, lot 1023 Price: USD 30,488.75 or approx. EUR 39,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Expert remark: Compare the closely related modeling, manner of carving, stone, and subject. Note the size (58.4 cm) and state of preservation. Auction result comparison: Type: Related Auction: Christie’s New York, 19 March 2013, lot 262 Price: USD 62,500 or approx. EUR 78,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Expert remark: Compare the related modeling, manner of carving, and stone. Note the similar state of preservation, different subject, and size (41.8 cm). Auction result comparison: Type: Related Auction: Bonhams London, 7 October 2014, lot 267 Price: GBP 18,750 or approx. EUR 31,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Expert remark: Compare the related modeling, manner of carving, and stone. Note the similar state of preservation, different subject, and size (75 cm).

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