- Title
- Architectural Bracket in the Form of a Celestial Nymph Teasing a Boy
- Date Made
- 13th-14th century
- Medium
- White marble
- Dimensions
- 29 5/8 x 8 1/2 x 7 in. (75.24 x 21.59 x 17.78 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.71.73.132
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
This marble sculpture of a celestial nymph (apsaras) originally served as an architectural bracket figure adorning the interior dome of a Jain temple, most likely in Rajasthan. Situated far above eye level, such works were often not as polished as the important devotional images placed closer to the ground. Nevertheless, they contributed significantly to the overwhelming visual exuberance of the temple's interior.
The crowned and bejeweled nymph is backed by a pointed strut carved in the shape of a lotus petal. She teases a boy by holding a drinking horn or cornucopia symbolic of abundance out of the reach of his upraised hand beside her breast. An ancillary vignette at the top of the strut showing a monkey reaching for a mango is perhaps intended as a pun on the main scene. Celestial nymphs such as this are often portrayed in a more playful mode than images of deities, which are bound by canonical restrictions. See also M.80.62.
