Massive image of Lord Ganesha in Vulcanic rock, Java, 9th. cent. AD
browse these categories for related items...
Directory: Antiques: Regional Art: Ancient World: Near Eastern: Stone: Pre 1492: Item # 1475467
Directory: Antiques: Regional Art: Ancient World: Near Eastern: Stone: Pre 1492: Item # 1475467
$5,995.00
Reduced, was $6950
Reduced, was $6950
Lovely museum quality Andesite sculpture of Lord Ganesha, Early Hindu period, c. 9th.-10th. century AD.
The mischievous "Remover of Obstacles", Ganesha is worshipped to bless both the start and success of almost any undertaking. In Indonesia, he is still revered today as an important patron of the arts and sciences.
Deftly carved from a volcanic stone sourced locally on the island of Java, the four-armed deity seated on a lotus base, holding an axe, rosary, and bowl of sweets into which he reaches with his trunk, adorned with various beaded jewelry, an elaborate crown, and a naga snake around his belly. The back of the figure shaped as the Demon from his great battle. His left tusk is broken and he looks worried with deep wrinkles in his forehead.
This sculpture was produced during a cultural renaissance in Java under the Indianized Shailendra dynasty. The Javanese kingdom prospered from lucrative trade networks expanding west through the Strait of Malacca, and north to China. Though the Shailendras are best known for patronizing one of the world's greatest Buddhist monuments, the colossal stupa of Borobudur, they also sponsored Hindu temples. Borrowing from Indian iconography, Javanese artists created sculptural programs for these monuments with their own local artistic proclivities, frequently resulting in icons exhibiting a quiet authority, like the present Ganesha. Like the Buddhas of Borobudur, this Ganesha shows a remarkable softness in the modelling of the forehead, eye sockets, and trunk. The remarkable depth of the original stone block afforded the sculptor vastly more surface area on which to carve his subject's gradual contours.
Size: 38-39 cm. tall and 27 cm. wide - a truely massive and very heavy figure for it's size, carved in dense Vulcanic rock.
Condition: Good very fine for the type, minor chips and corrosion but in an exceptional preservation, very rare!
Provenance: Old Swedish Collection, formerly in the Ban Bang Yoga Carta collection - an Indonesian professors collection, bought in the 1960s-1970s.
The mischievous "Remover of Obstacles", Ganesha is worshipped to bless both the start and success of almost any undertaking. In Indonesia, he is still revered today as an important patron of the arts and sciences.
Deftly carved from a volcanic stone sourced locally on the island of Java, the four-armed deity seated on a lotus base, holding an axe, rosary, and bowl of sweets into which he reaches with his trunk, adorned with various beaded jewelry, an elaborate crown, and a naga snake around his belly. The back of the figure shaped as the Demon from his great battle. His left tusk is broken and he looks worried with deep wrinkles in his forehead.
This sculpture was produced during a cultural renaissance in Java under the Indianized Shailendra dynasty. The Javanese kingdom prospered from lucrative trade networks expanding west through the Strait of Malacca, and north to China. Though the Shailendras are best known for patronizing one of the world's greatest Buddhist monuments, the colossal stupa of Borobudur, they also sponsored Hindu temples. Borrowing from Indian iconography, Javanese artists created sculptural programs for these monuments with their own local artistic proclivities, frequently resulting in icons exhibiting a quiet authority, like the present Ganesha. Like the Buddhas of Borobudur, this Ganesha shows a remarkable softness in the modelling of the forehead, eye sockets, and trunk. The remarkable depth of the original stone block afforded the sculptor vastly more surface area on which to carve his subject's gradual contours.
Size: 38-39 cm. tall and 27 cm. wide - a truely massive and very heavy figure for it's size, carved in dense Vulcanic rock.
Condition: Good very fine for the type, minor chips and corrosion but in an exceptional preservation, very rare!
Provenance: Old Swedish Collection, formerly in the Ban Bang Yoga Carta collection - an Indonesian professors collection, bought in the 1960s-1970s.
