A BRONZE FIGURE OF A STANDING APSARA OR SOUTH INDIAN SAINT
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE FRENCH COLLECTION
Possibly Tamil Nadu, Southern India, Chola period, 10th - 12th century

Cast in the round, presenting a figure in a typical Indian standing asana (pose) with a leg straight, the other slightly bent and the opposite hip bulging outward, the posture possibly inspired by earlier examples of salabhanjika sculptures but more moderate in the torsion of the body, and usually encountered in Chola figures of Uma (Parvati) and Saint Sambandar, the popular seventh-century child saint, one of the muvar, the three principal saints of South India, standing on a stepped lotus pedestal, the chest, arms and neck clad in necklaces and body adornments, the ears elongated by the weight of a large pair of earrings, a beaded crown around the head, 18.5cm high.

Provenance: Purchased by the present owner from the private collection of Michel and Martine Rede, in Vauréal, France, who acquired the sculpture in the late 1960s.