ARTS OF INDIA

~86
A RARE AND FINE FIGURAL IVORY PANEL FROM A CASKET
PROBABLY MADURAI, SOUTH INDIA, LATE 17TH CENTURY
Of rectangular form, the ivory carving laid out on a gold background, the surface divided into two scenes by a central column,
each scene depicting amorous embraces between a ruler and his courtesans standing beneath lobed arches containing dragon
corbels , set on a ground of dense foliage
5 Ω x 9 Ωin. (13.8 x 24.2cm.)
£120,000-180,000 $180,000-260,000
€150,000-220,000
PROVENANCE:
Private Collection, Bath, 1970s
Acquired by the current owner in London at the end of the 1970s
This impressive panel once formed part of a now dispersed ivory box which was found in Bath, England, in the 1970s. This
piece is probably the top of the casket. The other known pieces are the front, now in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
(In.N.80.171; J. M. Dye, The Arts of India, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Virginia, 2001, p.441), a side panel in the Museum
of Fine Arts Boston (In.N.: 1980.352; http:/www.mfa.org/collections/object/erotic-panel-22883) and another side in the
Metropolitan Museum of New York (In.N.: 2013.981a,b; http:/www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/78873), The back
was with Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch in 2015 (Fragments from the Tiber to the Ganges, London, 2015, cat. 53).
The elaborate lobed arches, the delicate dragons on top of each side and the capitals on the central column which separate the
two scenes are closely related to the interior of the Tirumala Nayak palace in Madurai which was built in the second quarter of
the 17th century (S. C. Welch, India, Art and Culture, New York, 1985, pp.40-41).
The hair-bun and the wide arched eye-brows of the ruler are closely related to an ivory sculpture in the Virginia Museum, dated
to the 18th century and attributed to Tamil Nadu (J. M. Dye, The Arts of India, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Virginia, 2001,
p.171). The fnely carved trousers and jewels worn by the ruler and the courtesans are very similar to the ones on a relief of
the marriage of Shiva and Parvati now in the Victoria and Albert (ref. IM.70-1930, http:/collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O17691/
marriage-of-shiva-and-parvati-relief-unknown) and a group conserved in the Museum of Srirangam (J. M. Dye, op.cit., 2001,
p.441). The closest example is ofered by an ivory casket in the Srirangam Temple with similar fgures in amorous embraces,
dated to the Nayaka period, 18th century (illustrated in Marg, Vol.XXXIII, No.2, Mumbai, 1980, no page number).
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