STATUE DE DEVI EN GRÈS INDE DU NORD, X/XIE SIÈCLESTATUE DE DEVI EN GRÈSINDE DU NORD, X/XIE SIÈCLE102 cm (40 1/8 in.) highA SANDSTONE FIGURE OF DEVINORTH INDIA, 10TH/11TH CENTURY印度北部 十/十一世紀 砂岩女神像Provenance:With Claude de Marteau, Brussels, by 1970sThis almost life-size upright goddess exemplifies bold and unyielding representations of the feminine divine so lauded in Indian art. Powerful and sensual, this figure may represent one of the sixty-four or eighty-one goddesses found in circular Yogini temples, believed to bestow a range of magical powers on their worshipers (c.f. Dehejia, Devi: The Great Goddess, Washington, 1999, p. 242). If so, the sculpture arises from the Shakti tradition, which considers our metaphysical reality as metaphorically feminine, wherein the Great Goddess (Devi) is identified as the supreme deity manifesting in various forms, by comparison to the many male deities that merely utilize her divine power. The goddess is adorned with elaborate necklaces, armbands, and a symmetrical arrangement of ribbons and beaded swags across her swollen thighs. Her tall mass of matted locks (jatamakuhta) is bound by a crown similar to a closely related example in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore (fig. 1).