Footnotes

爪哇 八/九世紀 濕婆銅像

As the Supreme God, Shiva as Mahadeva stands in the classic hierarchic pose with four arms holding a trident, a holy water kendi-like vessel, a rosary, and fly whisk. Beneath the jewels, incised floral dhoti, and crown with a tall coiled jatamukuta adorned with a crescent moon and sun, is the supple and slender body of the god. By his feet sits his vehicle, a diminutive form of the sacred bull Nandi.

As with other examples from the earlier Central Javanese period (7th-10th centuries), the jeweled waistband (udarabandha) here appears closer to the navel than in examples from the later Eastern Javanese period (10th-16th centuries). This feature is one of the more prominent stylistic elements of the South Indian Pallava style (7th-9th centuries) to have influenced artists in Java and is emphatic of the cultural exchange between these two regions. This piece is also linked through similar modes of representation to Cham and Yunnan sculpture. For a detailed discussion, see John Guy, "The Avalokiteshvara of Yunnan and Some South East Asian Connections", in Rosemary Scott & John Guy (ed.), South East Asia & China: Art Interaction & Commerce, Colloquies on Art & Archaeology in Asia, London, 1995, pp. 78-9, no. 17.

The present piece compares favourably with related examples in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, formerly in the Samuel Eilenberg Collection, see Lerner and Kossak, The Lotus Transcendent, New York, 1991, pp. 32-5, nos. 130-9 and another in the Richard Bull Collection, see Bull, "The Metamorphosis of One Collector", Expedition Magazine, University of Pennsylvania, 1965, p. 45.

Provenance:
The Tuyet Nguyet and Stephen Markbreiter Collection