A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF THE COSMIC SLEEP OF VISHNU


SOUTH INDIA, TANJORE, NAYAK PERIOD, CIRCA 18004 3/8 in. (11.1 cm) high
|Represented in this sculpture is Vishnu, considered by his followers as the supreme deity and divine source of the universe. From his navel arises the four-headed god Brahma to enact the creation of a cosmic cycle (kalpa). Meanwhile, Vishnu sleeps, attended to by two consorts, one of whom massages his right leg. The deity reclines above the multi-headed serpent, Shesha. It is from a state of cosmic slumber that Vishnu periodically awakes as an avatar to restore balance to the cosmic order (dharma) by vanquishing an egregious transgressor. Whereas Pal attributes this bronze to South India's Vijayanagara period, related examples attributed to c.1800 in the Norton Simon Museum (P.1996.3.4) and the Victoria & Albert Museum (IM.159-1929) suggest a more likely attribution to the Nayak period, and the mitres worn echo those seen in Tanjore painting of the period. Published Pal, The Elegant Image: Bronzes from the Indian Subcontinent in the Siddharth K. Bhansali Collection, New Orleans, 2011, p.172, no.93. Exhibited Hindu, Buddhist and Jain Bronzes from the Indian Subcontinent in the Siddharth K. Bhansali Collection, New Orleans Museum of Art, 5 August - 23 October 2011. Provenance Collection of Siddharth K. Bhansali, New Orleans Acquired in London between 1978-83