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| Celestial Musician (Gandharva) |
Period:Western Chalukyan period
Date:11th century
Culture:India (Karnataka, possibly Dharwar)
Medium:Slate
Dimensions:H. 40 3/4 in. (103.5 cm)
Classification:Sculpture
Credit Line:Gift of Florence and Herbert Irving, in honor of Philippe de Montebello, 2008
A semidivine celestial musician to the gods is shown playing a flute, standing beneath the canopy of a flowering tree. This bracket figure was intended to decorate a pillar capital of the interior of a Hindu temple of the western Chalukyas. Temples of the southern Deccan favored the use of such figures of celestial musicians and dancers, poised at an angle between the capital of a pillar and the temple's interior ceiling stones to form a bridge between the worldly and heavenly spheres, and to make explicit the notion of the temple as a heavenly palace.
Provenance
[ R. H. Ellsworth Ltd. , New York, 1982, sold to the Irvings in 1988]; Florence and Herbert Irving , New York (1988 until 2008; donated to MMA)
Copyright Image
https://images.metmuseum.org
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