Goddess
Artist/Culture
Uttar Pradesh
Artist/Culture
Mathura
Date500s
Mediummottled red sandstone
Dimensions78.7 cm (31 in.)
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineStoddard Acquisition Fund
Terms
Object number1999.68
DescriptionStanding frontally, amply proportioned, full face and heavy-lidded eyes, her hair drawn away from her face with curls at her temples and a protuberance abouve her forehead and with a high topknot, wearing disc earrings, two beaded necklaces, an arm band, a pleated scarf looped over her upper arm, a jewelled girdle falling over each hip and a diaphanous dhoti. Carved from the rich, red sandstone of the Mathura area. Its carefully delineated eyebrows, open eyes, full and sensuous lips, and round breasts convey both the spiritual and sensuous qualities that are characteristics of Mathuran sculpture during the Gupta period (AD 370-550). The right hand would have been in the gesture of charity (varada mudra) with the right hand down and the palm facing the viewer. The left hand would have clasped the figure’s drapery. The halo indicates it is a goddess, although the figure lacks the specific attributes that would identify it as a particular divinity.Label TextThis female figure was created in the north Indian town of Mathura, an important pilgrimage center for all three major Indian religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism—and is carved from the rich, red sandstone of that area. Its carefully delineated eyebrows, open eyes, full and sensuous lips, and round breasts convey the idealized and sensuous qualities characteristic of Mathuran figural sculpture during the classical Gupta period (370–550 CE). The halo indicates it is a goddess, although the figure lacks any specific attributes that would identify it as a particular divinity.
On View
On view
