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TIRUJNANA SAMBANDAR SWAMI
This bronze depicts Tirujnana Sambandar – a Hindu deity who is revered as a wandering priest and poet living in southern India circa the seventh century.
The present iconography is probably the most popular to depict Sambandar. His pose is referred to as urdhajanvasan – balancing on his right leg and gracefully extending his left arm in a gesture known as kari-hasta while making the sign of astonishment, vismaya-hasta, with his right hand. The saint is adorned with a wide array of jewellery, including a tapering tiara, concentric necklaces to which a cord that is draped around his torso is attached, shoulder tassels, the traditional infant’s girdle of bells (kimkini), armbands, wristlets, anklets and rings.
Provenance
Collection Mr. Jean Mahé, France, before 1972.
Collection Mr. Maurice Gazan, Belgium, 1972-1986.
Collection Prof. Dr. F. Adams, Belgium, 1986-2018.
Publication(s)
A. Neven, Sculpture des Indes, (Brussels: Société Générale de Banque, 1978), pp.115-116, fig. 44.
F. Adams and H. Wouters, “The Application of Spectroscopic Methods in the Study of two South Indian Bronzes,” in ESN – European Spectroscopy News, 76 (1987): pp. 10-17
Jan Van Alphen, Marcel Nies and David Weldon, Cast for Eternity, Bronze Masterworks from India and the Himalayas in Belgian and Dutch collections, (Antwerp: Ethnographic Museum, 2005), pp. 58-59, fig. 8, and p.26
Marcel Nies, Divine Presence: Master Sculpture from Asia, (Antwerp: Marcel Nies Oriental Art, 2018), pp. 40-43
Exhibition(s)