Temple Dancer

18th century

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 242

This panel depicting a temple dancer was one of a pair that decorated the doorjambs or entablature of the entrance to a Sri Lankan temple or monastery. With the decay of a building's foundation timbers, such panels became independent objects. This example is very likely the pair to a panel that has been in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, since 1879. Both depict a female dancer dressed in a finely fluted skirt, framed by fern-like tendrils and a diamond lozenge-pattern border. The figure is poised in a dance and hand pose (karana) prescribed in the Indian classical dance manual, the Natyshastra. Stylistic parallels with temple wood carving, such as that seen at Embekke Devale in Kandy district, point to an eighteenth-century date.

Artwork Details

Overview

Provenance

Title: Temple Dancer
Date: 18th century
Culture: Sri Lanka, Kandy region
Medium: Ivory
Dimensions: H. 9 1/2 in. (24.1 cm); W. 7 in. (17.8 cm); D. 3/4 in. (1.9 cm)
Classification: Ivories
Credit Line: Purchase, Gift in memory of Else and Ernest Stadler from their children, 2019
Object Number: 2019.199
Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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