A copper alloy figure of Parvati, South India, Vijayanagara period, 16th / 17th century
A copper alloy figure of Parvati
Vijayanagara period, 16th / 17th century
Height 27⅕ in., 69 cm
Condition Report:
The figure is preserved in good overall condition. As visible in the photos, the patina of the Parvati is heavily oxidized. There is a small gap by the left foot from a casting imperfection. 0.4cm chip to the reverse of the pedestal. 0.2cm chip to the upper edge of the wheel behind the head. Other minor surface wear.
Catalogue Note:
Parvati, the goddess of the Himalayas, is the archetypal mother goddess and fertility image. Referred to as Uma in South India, she is the consort of Shiva and the mother to Ganesha and Skanda. This superbly cast and superbly sensual sculpture would have originally been placed inside a temple and carried in a religious procession so that devotees could see and engage with the deity.
In the Hindu religion, fertility goddesses were an important component of early Indian nature cults, eventually assimilated into the symbolic repertoire of late Indian religious art. The prototype for the female torso was the damaru, the waisted hourglass-shaped drum held by the god Shiva. Closely adhering to the models specified in ancient texts, the master sculptors of the Chola and Vijayanagar period created an idealised female form with narrow waist, broad hips, high, sumptuously rounded breasts and shapely arms elongated to resemble the slender pliant bamboo shoot, and eyes modelled on the lotus petal or the fish. These young, beautiful, sensuous figures personify fertility, maternity, and Indian ideals of feminine beauty.
The current sculpture encapsulates this archetypal image of the female, embodying the fullness of femininity which includes both sacredness and sensuality. The style of this bronze, deriving directly out of the Chola dynasty bronzes, culminates into a standarised form as it develops within the Chola dynasty and into the Vijayanagar period. A larger copper alloy figure of Parvati, included in the exhibition The Sensuous Immortals. A Selection of Sculptures from the Pan-Asian Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 1977, cat. no. 66c, was sold in our London rooms, 7th December 2022, lot 1, from the collection of Sir Joseph Hotung,
Jack Masey (1924-2016) was a modern-day polymath with interest across history and culture. He enjoyed success in multiple fields of activity, but especially in two key periods of his career: in his involvement in the Ghost Army during the Second World War, and as an organizer of international exhibitions for the US State Department. The collection of Indian stone carvings he formed while resident in New Delhi in the 1950s pays testament to his connoisseurship and eye as an art collector.
The name ‘Ghost Army’ is used to describe the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops and the 3133rd Signal Service Company during WWII. The members used inflatable equipment, sound effects, radio trickery and other combat deception strategies to trick the Nazis and move enemy forces away from American Units. The last surviving veterans were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for their achievements, which resulted in tens of thousands of American lives being saved. Jack, one of the earliest graduates of the High School of Music and Art in New York City, was selected for assignment to the “Ghost Army” for his artistic skills alongside Bill Blass and Ellsworth Kelly.
After studying at the Yale School of Art and Architecture, Masey was recruited by the US State Department to organize exhibitions on behalf of the United States around the world. As the design chief for the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow, he worked with George Nelson, Charles and Ray Eames and Richard Buckminster Fuller, and included fashion shows and art by the likes of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. Here also, a selection of US household appliances in a model home sparked the famous “Khrushchev-Nixon kitchen debate”, which became one of the landmark moments of the Cold War.
During his first assignment in New Delhi in the 1950s on the peaceful use of atomic energy, he had frequent contact with Jawaharlal Nehru, befriended filmmaker Satyajit Ray, became close to Ravi Shankar, and embraced the culture of India. From 1953-54 he made groundbreaking recordings of the music of Ravi Shankar and other leading musicians including Ali Akbar Khan and Chatur Lal. These original tapes remain with his widow and are available for study.
The twelve lots (lots 150-161) offered in this sale were all collected by Jack Masey while based in New Delhi in the 1950s. They provide a snapshot into the evolution of sculpture in India, from the early Buddhist images created at Gandhara and Mathura to the elegant bronze figure of Parvati from the Vijayanagara period.
Provenance:
Collection of Jack Masey (1924-2016).
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A copper alloy figure of Parvati
Vijayanagara period, 16th / 17th century
Height 27⅕ in., 69 cm
Condition Report:
The figure is preserved in good overall condition. As visible in the photos, the patina of the Parvati is heavily oxidized. There is a small gap by the left foot from a casting imperfection. 0.4cm chip to the reverse of the pedestal. 0.2cm chip to the upper edge of the wheel behind the head. Other minor surface wear.
Catalogue Note:
Parvati, the goddess of the Himalayas, is the archetypal mother goddess and fertility image. Referred to as Uma in South India, she is the consort of Shiva and the mother to Ganesha and Skanda. This superbly cast and superbly sensual sculpture would have originally been placed inside a temple and carried in a religious procession so that devotees could see and engage with the deity.
In the Hindu religion, fertility goddesses were an important component of early Indian nature cults, eventually assimilated into the symbolic repertoire of late Indian religious art. The prototype for the female torso was the damaru, the waisted hourglass-shaped drum held by the god Shiva. Closely adhering to the models specified in ancient texts, the master sculptors of the Chola and Vijayanagar period created an idealised female form with narrow waist, broad hips, high, sumptuously rounded breasts and shapely arms elongated to resemble the slender pliant bamboo shoot, and eyes modelled on the lotus petal or the fish. These young, beautiful, sensuous figures personify fertility, maternity, and Indian ideals of feminine beauty.
The current sculpture encapsulates this archetypal image of the female, embodying the fullness of femininity which includes both sacredness and sensuality. The style of this bronze, deriving directly out of the Chola dynasty bronzes, culminates into a standarised form as it develops within the Chola dynasty and into the Vijayanagar period. A larger copper alloy figure of Parvati, included in the exhibition The Sensuous Immortals. A Selection of Sculptures from the Pan-Asian Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 1977, cat. no. 66c, was sold in our London rooms, 7th December 2022, lot 1, from the collection of Sir Joseph Hotung,
Jack Masey (1924-2016) was a modern-day polymath with interest across history and culture. He enjoyed success in multiple fields of activity, but especially in two key periods of his career: in his involvement in the Ghost Army during the Second World War, and as an organizer of international exhibitions for the US State Department. The collection of Indian stone carvings he formed while resident in New Delhi in the 1950s pays testament to his connoisseurship and eye as an art collector.
The name ‘Ghost Army’ is used to describe the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops and the 3133rd Signal Service Company during WWII. The members used inflatable equipment, sound effects, radio trickery and other combat deception strategies to trick the Nazis and move enemy forces away from American Units. The last surviving veterans were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for their achievements, which resulted in tens of thousands of American lives being saved. Jack, one of the earliest graduates of the High School of Music and Art in New York City, was selected for assignment to the “Ghost Army” for his artistic skills alongside Bill Blass and Ellsworth Kelly.
After studying at the Yale School of Art and Architecture, Masey was recruited by the US State Department to organize exhibitions on behalf of the United States around the world. As the design chief for the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow, he worked with George Nelson, Charles and Ray Eames and Richard Buckminster Fuller, and included fashion shows and art by the likes of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. Here also, a selection of US household appliances in a model home sparked the famous “Khrushchev-Nixon kitchen debate”, which became one of the landmark moments of the Cold War.
During his first assignment in New Delhi in the 1950s on the peaceful use of atomic energy, he had frequent contact with Jawaharlal Nehru, befriended filmmaker Satyajit Ray, became close to Ravi Shankar, and embraced the culture of India. From 1953-54 he made groundbreaking recordings of the music of Ravi Shankar and other leading musicians including Ali Akbar Khan and Chatur Lal. These original tapes remain with his widow and are available for study.
The twelve lots (lots 150-161) offered in this sale were all collected by Jack Masey while based in New Delhi in the 1950s. They provide a snapshot into the evolution of sculpture in India, from the early Buddhist images created at Gandhara and Mathura to the elegant bronze figure of Parvati from the Vijayanagara period.
Provenance:
Collection of Jack Masey (1924-2016).
Estimate
Reserve
Time, Location
Auction House
