Provenance:
Carlton Rochell Asian Art, New York
American Private Collection, acquired in 2004
Published:
Sacred Beauty: A Millennium of Religious Art, 600-1600, Frank H. McClung Museum exhibition catalogue, The University of Tennessee, 2007, p. 17
Watched by two cloud-borne celestial garland bearers, eight-armed elephant-headed Ganesha dances in a lively attitude on a lotus flanked by his recumbent rat vehicle and a kneeling donor figure. Two musicians are seated on either side of the base playing cymbals and a drum. Deeply carved, Ganesha’s rotund figure, especially his overhanging paunch, conveys a sense of volume and graceful buoyancy.
Ganesha is generally regarded as the god of auspicious beginnings and granter of fulfillment. His is the power to put obstacles in the way—and to remove them. In this particular form his role as a fertility deity is emphasized by the bunch of mangoes crowning the apex of the stele. His principal right hand exhibits the gesture of reassurance, and his corresponding left arm is outstretched diagonally in a gesture from the dancer’s repertoire. His other hands are holding various attributes including the battle-axe, rosary, and bowl of sweets.
Compare a similar dancing Ganesha in Pal, P., Indian Sculpture, Volume 2., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, University of California Press, 1988, no. 105.
