STÈLE D'UMA MAHESHVARA EN GRÈS ROUGEUTTAR PRADESH, VIIIE/IXE SIÈCLE72.5 cm (28 1/2 in.) highProvenance: A RED SANDSTONE STELE OF UMA MAHESHVARAUTTAR PRADESH, 8TH/9TH CENTURY北方邦 八/九世紀 紅砂岩濕婆與烏瑪石碑Provenance:With Claude de Marteau, Brussels, by 1970sShiva's regal status is invoked from his neatly arranged matted locks which form a towering crown-likejatamukuta. Parvati sits on his right thigh as one of his left arm rests on her shoulder, both of them physically relaxed as they gaze in a divine trance at one another. Shiva holds his customary attributes, the mala and trident, while Parvati holds her infant son Skanda in her lap. Featured below are Vrishabha, the bull, Ganesha and other diminutive figures. Brahma and Vishnu flank the couple at the top of the stele.Thispositionpares favorably with a more fragmented example in the Dayton Art Institute dated to the mid-8th century, (see Mason and Desai,Guardians and Lovers, 1999, p. 180, no. 24. Also see very similar example published in Coomaraswamy,Catalogue of the Indian Collections in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Vol II. 1923, p. 64, no. 21.1720, Plate XXII.