A GUPTA TERRACOTTA RELIEF DEPICTING A BULL

A GUPTA TERRACOTTA RELIEF DEPICTING A BULL, PROBABLY NANDI, NORTHERN INDIA, CIRCA 5TH CENTURY

of rectangular form, the animal with pronounced hump, depicted crouching within an incised frame, a kirtimukha gushing water into a kalasa on the right, fixing behind for wall mounting

22 x 35 x 9cm

Provenance: Private collection, England. Acquired Christie's New York, 21 September 2007, lot 232. Formerly in the Alsdorf Collection, Chicago.

Published: Pratapaditya Pal, 'A Collecting Odyssey', Chicago 1997, cat. no. 350, p. 260 and 350.

For a strikingly similar panel in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, see inv. no. 1988.52. For a charming depiction of a buffalo scratching its ear, from Mainamati, East Bengal, see O. C. Gangoly et al., 'Indian Terracotta Art, London 1959, p. l4