A MARBLE STELE OF A JAIN TIRTHANKARA


WESTERN INDIA, CIRCA 15TH CENTURYWith a three line inscription across the base. 17 3/4 in. (45 cm) high
|The stele depicts one of Jainism's twenty-four exemplars (tirthankaras) surrounded by auspicious imagery converging the natural and mythic worlds. He stands naked in the 'body-abandoning' pose (kayotsarga). Lotus stems reach up to support his hands, while his head and shoulders are framed by a canopy of leaves and a parasol descending from the mouth of a 'face of glory' (kirtimukha). The stele's left shows a sequence of a nature spirit (yaksha) paying homage, an elephant, and a mythic horned lion (vyala). The sculpture's overall stylization suggests a 15th-century date, when Jainism once again flourished in Western India after the cessation of Muslim conquests. Great temples such as Ranakpur and the later Dilwara temples of Mount Abu were erected at that time. Compare the stele's capped columns and with a 15th-century white marble figure of another Tirthankara in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1931-60-1). Provenance Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, New York Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 14 October 1964, lot 119 Estate of Dorothy Beskind (1917-2014), New York Thence by descent