A BUFF SANDSTONE FIGURE OF DANCING GANESHA


NORTH INDIA, 10TH/11TH CENTURY33 1/2 in. (85 cm) high
|Musicians carved in low relief on the bottom corners of this stele provide the rhythm for Ganesha's elegant dance. Two diminutive dancing figures of Ganesha add symmetry to the central subject, in a rare compositional feature. Despite their corpulent bellies, suggestive of the prosperity Ganesha provides, all three seemingly move with grace and a lightness of foot. One foot is placed before the other, with the leg bent at the knee, while the head, torso, and lower body are ingeniously inclined in different directions to simulate the postures of dance. A closely related example, in volume and movement, formerly of the Alsdorf Collection, is published in Pal, A Collecting Odyssey, Chicago, 1997, p.60 & 287, no.70. Also compare a stele of Dancing Ganesha in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Kramrisch, Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Philadelphia, 1995, p.51). Kramisch notes, "Ganesh dancing is the image that most fully conveys the joyous wisdom he embodies, the knowledge that humans are one with the Absolute." Provenance Albert Rudolph, Rudi Oriental Arts, New York, 1970 Christie's, New York, 13 September 2011, lot 260 Private Collection, New York