.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
During the Chola rule in South India from around the 9th to the 13th century, bronze sculpture excelled under royal patronage. This sculpture of Parvati arguably marks another step towards even greater refinement, following clearly defined canons of proportion that evolved to ever more complex and exacting standards. During the Chola period the hipswing of bronze sculptures of Parvati is predominately to the left, while it now moves to the right mirroring the same outline. This sculpture represents perhaps the greatest level of achievement possible in terms of overall refinement, culminating in the 15th century, as is likewise found in other parts of Asia around that time. The sculptor's capabilities are unmatched and this image can be ranked among the very finest of the period, a masterpiece in its own right.
Few other notable examples exist, but of later date, at the Tanjuvar Art Gallery, Tanjuvar, and at the National Gallery of India, New Delhi, see C. Sivaramamurti, South Indian Bronzes, 1963, figs. 80a and b.
It is interesting to compare the facial features to the famous Freer Uma attributed to the Sembiyan workshops during the Chola Period, that Vidya Dehejia has suggested to be a "portrait" of Queen Sembiyan Mahadevi as Uma Parameshvari, V. Dehejia, The Sensuous and the Sacred, 2002, p. 124ff., and in the treatment of the outline and folds of the dhoti to the Rockefeller Uma of similar size, see V. Dehejia et. al., Chola: Sacred Bronzes of Southern India, 2006, p. 80f.
The groundbreaking scholar and distinguished collector, Stuart Cary Welch, curator of Islamic and Later Indian Art at the Harvard University Art Museums from 1956 until 1995 and concurrently head of the Islamic art department at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1979 to 1987, wrote a most eloquent entry about this piece in the catalogue of India, Art and Culture, 1985, pp. 27ff., that merits to be quoted in its entirety:
"No one could deny the immense artistic and human appeal of this masterfully cast, crisply modeled and chased sculpture, with its sweetly compelling expression, superbly lissome yet ample figure, luxuriantly sinuous jewelry and coiffure, and costume vibrant with form-hugging folds. Late as it may be within South India's tradition of bronze casting, this is a powerful and movingly feminine envisonment of Shiva's consort Parvati, who represents generic woman - shakti, the tangible and noblest form of cosmic divine power - and is the benign aspect of Kali. Although as a tool for meditiation (dhyana) the goddess could have been represented in other worshipful forms, she is embodied here as a stunning figurative image, a pratima. A devotee who is sufficiently pure in heart and able to take power from within can through the image's suprasensual beauty achieve the goal of worship: samadhi, or the merging of the perceiver with the perceived. At a yet higher spiritual level, this union of the divided divine can be affected without the image, by envisioning it in the mind's (or soul's) eye.
According to Tantric philosophy (as more widely practiced in the north in medieval and post-medieval India), it is also possible to attain such release through worshipping a living woman, a human image: 'On a Friday [the worshipper] is to invite and summon a beautiful maiden pleasing to the eye, in the bloom of youth of great charm bedecked with all the auspicious symbols... and past puberty. He is to cleanse her body with bathing and ointments and place her upon the ceremonial seat. He is to adorn her according to the instructions, with perfumes, flowers, garments, and ornaments, and following this, adorn himself as well with ointments, flowers, and so forth. He is to install the deity into the maiden and offer her sacrifices through the ritual of touching. Once he has worshipped her in the proper ritual sequence, and sacrificed incense and candles to her... in his belief that she is the deity, he is to delight her, in in his loving devotion, with things to eat, each of which possesses one of the six types of flavors, with meat and other foods and sweetmeats. When he sees her delight at its peak, he is to utter the Goddess' sacred formula, himself filled with the joy of youthful vigor, and his thoughts totally immersed in the ritual image of the deity. Once he has with unwavering attention offered up to her the spoken formula, among other things, one thousand and eight times, let him pass the night with her. Whoever worships in this way for three, five, seven or nine Fridays receives benefits beyond measure deriving from his piety.'"
Thomas T. Solley (1924-2006)
Thomas Treat Solley was a collector of exceptional taste, a modern day renaissance man of broad interest and insight. Born in 1924 as the grandson of Evan Frost Lilly (1855-1903), secretary-treasurer of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly & Co., he came from a family known for its visionary philanthropy. After serving in the army during World War II, Solley earned a bachelor's degree in architecture from Yale in 1950. He worked for Eli Lilly in Indianapolis for 10 years, opened his own architectural practice in 1961, then in a radical career change went on to study art history at the University of Indiana, earning a master's degree in 1966. He then pursued postgraduate work in modern and surrealist art, before joining the University's Art Museum and being named its director in 1971. During his tenure, the museum's fine core collection of 4,000 objects grew to over 30,000 exemplary works of art. He also oversaw the planning, construction, and installation of the building designed by I. M. Pei & Partners, dedicated in 1982, and directed the installation of the museum's three permanent collection galleries. Due to his unflagging efforts, extraordinary foresight and generosity, the museum's collections and facilities are acknowledged today as among the finest of any university art museum in the world. In addition to numerous major gifts during his tenure at the museum, he established the Thomas T. Solley Endowed Fund for the Curator of Ancient Art in 1996, followed four years later by his endowment of the Pamela Buell Curatorship of Asian Art. The museum's spacious and light-filled atrium is named after him.
As a collector he displayed a rare insight and curiosity, amassing a highly exceptional collection of masterpieces as far afield as German expressionism and photography (see Christie's Magazine, Jan/Feb 2007, p. 80-81). As Heidi Gealt, the museum's current director, explains, "He simply had a great eye. Tom Solley had an extraordinary and instinctive understanding of objects and unsurpassed taste. He could recognize quality no matter what the medium and pick out works that best reflected a certain period." His eye for Indian art and the related art from Southeast Asia is most remarkable. There is a distinct passion for the female form contrasting with his fascination in architecture and the man-made environment, a constant concern for the formal, structural perfection in the making of a work of art.
Few other notable examples exist, but of later date, at the Tanjuvar Art Gallery, Tanjuvar, and at the National Gallery of India, New Delhi, see C. Sivaramamurti, South Indian Bronzes, 1963, figs. 80a and b.
It is interesting to compare the facial features to the famous Freer Uma attributed to the Sembiyan workshops during the Chola Period, that Vidya Dehejia has suggested to be a "portrait" of Queen Sembiyan Mahadevi as Uma Parameshvari, V. Dehejia, The Sensuous and the Sacred, 2002, p. 124ff., and in the treatment of the outline and folds of the dhoti to the Rockefeller Uma of similar size, see V. Dehejia et. al., Chola: Sacred Bronzes of Southern India, 2006, p. 80f.
The groundbreaking scholar and distinguished collector, Stuart Cary Welch, curator of Islamic and Later Indian Art at the Harvard University Art Museums from 1956 until 1995 and concurrently head of the Islamic art department at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1979 to 1987, wrote a most eloquent entry about this piece in the catalogue of India, Art and Culture, 1985, pp. 27ff., that merits to be quoted in its entirety:
"No one could deny the immense artistic and human appeal of this masterfully cast, crisply modeled and chased sculpture, with its sweetly compelling expression, superbly lissome yet ample figure, luxuriantly sinuous jewelry and coiffure, and costume vibrant with form-hugging folds. Late as it may be within South India's tradition of bronze casting, this is a powerful and movingly feminine envisonment of Shiva's consort Parvati, who represents generic woman - shakti, the tangible and noblest form of cosmic divine power - and is the benign aspect of Kali. Although as a tool for meditiation (dhyana) the goddess could have been represented in other worshipful forms, she is embodied here as a stunning figurative image, a pratima. A devotee who is sufficiently pure in heart and able to take power from within can through the image's suprasensual beauty achieve the goal of worship: samadhi, or the merging of the perceiver with the perceived. At a yet higher spiritual level, this union of the divided divine can be affected without the image, by envisioning it in the mind's (or soul's) eye.
According to Tantric philosophy (as more widely practiced in the north in medieval and post-medieval India), it is also possible to attain such release through worshipping a living woman, a human image: 'On a Friday [the worshipper] is to invite and summon a beautiful maiden pleasing to the eye, in the bloom of youth of great charm bedecked with all the auspicious symbols... and past puberty. He is to cleanse her body with bathing and ointments and place her upon the ceremonial seat. He is to adorn her according to the instructions, with perfumes, flowers, garments, and ornaments, and following this, adorn himself as well with ointments, flowers, and so forth. He is to install the deity into the maiden and offer her sacrifices through the ritual of touching. Once he has worshipped her in the proper ritual sequence, and sacrificed incense and candles to her... in his belief that she is the deity, he is to delight her, in in his loving devotion, with things to eat, each of which possesses one of the six types of flavors, with meat and other foods and sweetmeats. When he sees her delight at its peak, he is to utter the Goddess' sacred formula, himself filled with the joy of youthful vigor, and his thoughts totally immersed in the ritual image of the deity. Once he has with unwavering attention offered up to her the spoken formula, among other things, one thousand and eight times, let him pass the night with her. Whoever worships in this way for three, five, seven or nine Fridays receives benefits beyond measure deriving from his piety.'"
Thomas T. Solley (1924-2006)
Thomas Treat Solley was a collector of exceptional taste, a modern day renaissance man of broad interest and insight. Born in 1924 as the grandson of Evan Frost Lilly (1855-1903), secretary-treasurer of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly & Co., he came from a family known for its visionary philanthropy. After serving in the army during World War II, Solley earned a bachelor's degree in architecture from Yale in 1950. He worked for Eli Lilly in Indianapolis for 10 years, opened his own architectural practice in 1961, then in a radical career change went on to study art history at the University of Indiana, earning a master's degree in 1966. He then pursued postgraduate work in modern and surrealist art, before joining the University's Art Museum and being named its director in 1971. During his tenure, the museum's fine core collection of 4,000 objects grew to over 30,000 exemplary works of art. He also oversaw the planning, construction, and installation of the building designed by I. M. Pei & Partners, dedicated in 1982, and directed the installation of the museum's three permanent collection galleries. Due to his unflagging efforts, extraordinary foresight and generosity, the museum's collections and facilities are acknowledged today as among the finest of any university art museum in the world. In addition to numerous major gifts during his tenure at the museum, he established the Thomas T. Solley Endowed Fund for the Curator of Ancient Art in 1996, followed four years later by his endowment of the Pamela Buell Curatorship of Asian Art. The museum's spacious and light-filled atrium is named after him.
As a collector he displayed a rare insight and curiosity, amassing a highly exceptional collection of masterpieces as far afield as German expressionism and photography (see Christie's Magazine, Jan/Feb 2007, p. 80-81). As Heidi Gealt, the museum's current director, explains, "He simply had a great eye. Tom Solley had an extraordinary and instinctive understanding of objects and unsurpassed taste. He could recognize quality no matter what the medium and pick out works that best reflected a certain period." His eye for Indian art and the related art from Southeast Asia is most remarkable. There is a distinct passion for the female form contrasting with his fascination in architecture and the man-made environment, a constant concern for the formal, structural perfection in the making of a work of art.