Parvati

CultureIndian

Date10th century C.E.

MediumBronze

DimensionsOverall: 20 1/2 × 7 3/4 × 5 1/4 inches (52.07 × 19.69 × 13.34 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number50-18

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

South and Southeast Asian Art

Terms

Exhibition History

Hindu Sculpture, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota, January 25-March 2, 1952, no cat.

Bronzes of India and Greater India, The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, November 2-30, 1955, no. 30 as Bhu-Devi or Parvati.

Art in Asia and the West, San Francisco Museum of Art, October 28-December 1, 1957, no. 4f.

Master Bronzes of India, The Art Institute of Chicago, September 3-October 10, 1965; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, October 21-November 30, 1965; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, January 18-February 27, 1966; Asia House Gallery, New York, October 12-December 11, 1966, no. 33.

Shiva Nataraja: Der komische Tanzer, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, Switzerland, November 16, 2008-March 1, 2009, no. 31 as Shivas Gattin Parvati.

Gallery Label

Parvati is the principal consort of the Hindu god, Shiva. Here, the artist has created an image of her that remarkably reflects the artistic achievements of the great Chola bronze sculptors. Notice the ease and naturalism of the figure. Parvati’s gentle smile, the superb modeling of her torso, hips and limbs, the relaxed, triple-bend posture, the smoothness of the flesh and the restrained use of decorative detail all combine to produce an image that seems both human and divine.

Provenance

With C. T. Loo & Co., Paris and New York, no. J-208, by December 1946-1950 [1];

Purchased from C. T. Loo, Inc. by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1950.

NOTES:

[1] C. T. Loo/Frank Caro archive, Musée Guimet, Paris, copy of stock card in Nelson-Atkins curatorial files. C. T. Loo & Co. was incorporated as C. T. Loo, Inc. in 1949.

Published References

“Hindu Sculpture,” in The Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin, 41, no. 8 (February 23, 1952): 38.

Rhode Island School of Design. Bronzes of India and Greater India; an Exhibition Held the 2 till the 30 November, 1955, exh. cat. (Providence, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, 1955), 16 (fig. 30), 19, (repro.).

San Francisco Museum of Art, Art in Asia and the West, exh. cat. (San Francisco, California: H. S. Crocker Co., Inc., 1957), 30.

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 232, (repro.).

Pratapaditya Pal, “The Rich Variety of the Indian Bronze,” in Apollo, 97 (March 1973): 75, fig. 2, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 2, Art of the Orient, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 134, (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 384, (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 264, fig. 23, (repro.).

Johannes Beltz, and Saskia Cornelia Kersenboom. Shiva Nataraja: der Kosmische Tänzer, exh. cat. (Zürich: Museum Rietberg, 2008), 128-29, (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.