Celestial Woman in a Niche

Inscriptions

Not signed.

Label

This block of stone was once part of a carved doorframe, likely part of the entrance to a Hindu temple. The figure of a woman stands inside a rectangular niche that is topped with an elaborate pierced, scrolling carving of interlocking candra-śalas (split-windows), which may have echoed the larger temple that this block once adorned.

The woman, who stands in the dancer’s tribhanga pose with swayed hips, shoulders, and neck, holds a lotus stalk across her body. Many temple carvings featured similar young, beautiful women, who were not meant to inspire lust but instead to conjure ideas of prosperity, fertility, and nature’s bounty. While this dancer was likely once part of a larger ensemble of dancing figures, in a museum she stands divorced from her original ornate surroundings as a lone representative of a larger architectural and religious monument.

From the 2024 exhibition Ancient Narratives: A New Look at Old Art, curated by Ashley B. Offill, Curator of Collections

Course History

ANTH 57, Origins of Inequality, Alan Covey, Winter 2013

SART 17.08, Digital Drawing, Karol Kawiaka, Fall 2020

COCO 26.01, What's in Your Toolbox?, Heidi Denzel and Mokhtar Bouba, Fall 2022

COCO 26.01, What's in Your Toolbox?, Heidi Denzel and Mokhtar Bouba, Fall 2022

Anthropology 3.01, Introduction to Anthropology, Charis Ford Morrison Boke, Summer 2023

Art History 31.01, Arts of South Asia, Seher Agarwala, Fall 2023

Italian 3.01, Introductory Italian III, Floriana Ciniglia, Winter 2024

Religion 4.01, Jewish Studies 4.01, Religion of Israel: Hebrew Bible, Susan Ackerman, Winter 2024

Studio Art 16.01, Sculpture I, Matt Siegle, Winter 2024

Anthropology 55.01, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Spring 2024

Geography 21.01, International Studies 18.01, Global Health and Society, Anne Sosin, Spring 2024

Exhibition History

A Collector's Choice, William B. Jaffe Memorial Exhibition, Hopkins Center Art Galleriees, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 8, 1972-January 7, 1973.

Ancient and Premodern Global Cultures, Gene Y. Kim Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26, 2019.

Global Cultures at the Hood: Ancient to Premodern, Gene Y. Kim Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26. 2019.

Provenance

Acquired by Frank Caro (1904-1980) Chinese Art, New York, New York, date unknown; sold to present collection, 1965.

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Subjects