NEPAL, 14TH/15TH CENTURY

Details

A polychromed wood figure of Tara
Nepal, 14th/15th century
Carved seated in lalitasana on a double-lotus base, her hands held before her chest in the gesture of teaching, her head slightly tilted with an attentive expression and hair tied in a knot to the side and resting on her shoulder, wearing a tightly fitted bodice with richly painted designs
28½ in. (72.4 cm.) high

Provenance

With Spink and Son, Ltd., London, 1998
Acquired by the present owner from Christie's New York, 21 September 2005, lot 137

Literature

Spink and Son, Ltd., Body, Speech and Mind, 1998, p. 54f, cat. no. 28.

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Lot Essay

With her hands held before her in the gesture of teaching, this work likely depicts the goddess Tara. However, she is represented with naturalistic rather than idealized features, indicating that the work was possibly based on a real-life model. For another example of a polychromed wooden Tara in the Museum für Indische Kunst, Berlin, see E. Waldschmidt, Nepal: Art Treasures from the Himalayas, 1969, cat. no. 53.

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