PAIR OF INDUS VALLEY TERRACOTTA IDOL FIGURES

C. 3rd millennium BC. A pair of light reddish-brown coloured handmade idols of characteristically abstract form with highly stylised features, including prominent noses and broad mouths, and formless smock dresses over budding breasts. Both figures stand with hands held in front of them, as if engaged in prayer or other ritual activity. Their highly stylized faces present with impressed circular eyes, a narrow nose, slender lips, and tall forehead topped with a neatly arranged coiffure. The figures have been made in two different scales, with that on the left far larger than that on the right, underlining the fact that each of these pieces were made individually. The Indus Valley Civilisation was an important Bronze Age culture which arose in c. 3300 BC and lasted until c. 1300, though its heyday, to which these ceramic figures belong, was in the 3rd millennium BC. These fertility figures are common in the Indus Valley, and likely represent offerings to a deity in exchange for fertility and a healthy pregnancy. Good condition. Provenance: Private London collection, formed since the 1980s on the UK and European art market. Size: L:Set of 2: 140 - 185mm / W:70 - 100mm ; 785g