Provenance:
David Tremayne Ltd., London
The Kronos Collections, acquired in the early 1980s
Published:
Martin Lerner, The Flame and the Lotus, Indian and Southeast Asian Art from The Kronos Collections, Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition catalogue, New York, 1984, no. 1
This enigmatic object is cast and hammered from a flat piece of copper into a representation of a male figure. It is related to anthropomorphic forms founds with the Copper Hoards at Indian archaeological sites, primarily in the Gangetic Basin, Orissa, and Madhya Pradesh. Such distinctive anthropomorphic forms have not been unearthed outside of India, even though other artifacts of copper or clay excavated with such pieces do seem related to implements and objects that belonged to contemporary cultures of the Indus Valley region and western Asia.
These objects have in common their shape: a flat abstract form, with a semicircular protuberance at one end representing the “head,” two outstretched “arms” with “forearms” curving inward, and two outspread “legs.” Because their silhouettes resemble frontal human forms, the cast objects have been called anthropomorphs.
For an informative discussion about these enigmatic figures, see The Guennol Collection, Vol. II, New York, 1982, pp. 55-58, by Dr. Amy G. Poster; also compare two similar figures at The Metropolitan Museum of Art formerly in the Eilenberg Collection (acc. 2000.284.37 and 2001.433.5) and one at Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (acc. 880). A slightly smaller example was sold at Christie’s, New York, March 20, 2019, as lot 651; also compare Sotheby’s, New York, March 21, 2024, lot 801, from the Guennol Collection.
(reverse)