Untitled

Unknown

11th century · Slate · Asian Art

A semidivine celestial musician to the gods is shown playing a flute, standing beneath the canopy of a flowering tree. This bracket figure was intended to decorate a pillar capital of the interior of a Hindu temple of the western Chalukyas. Temples of the southern Deccan favored the use of such figures of celestial musicians and dancers, poised at an angle between the capital of a pillar and the temple's interior ceiling stones to form a bridge between the worldly and heavenly spheres, and to make explicit the notion of the temple as a heavenly palace.

Artist

Unknown

Date

11th century

Medium

Slate

Culture

India (Karnataka, possibly Dharwar)

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Gift of Florence and Herbert Irving, in honor of Philippe de Montebello, 2008