- Title
- Lovers in a Pavilion
- Date Made
- circa 1700
- Medium
- Ivory with paint
- Dimensions
- 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 3/8 in. (11.43 x 6.35 x .95 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.72.107
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
This openwork ivory plaque portrays two lovers seated on a low bed inside a pavilion with a lobed archway supported by complex baluster columns. The bejeweled figures are seated in the ‘royal ease’ posture with both legs bent and the feet placed nearly together on the seat. One knee is raised while the other extends horizontally. The female’s right leg rests on the male’s left leg. The smiling lovers are embracing with their arms around each other's shoulders. The male lovingly caresses the chin of the female, who clasps his forearm to hold his hand in place.
Numerous similar plaques are now dispersed in collections worldwide. They exhibit variations in figural style and have been dated accordingly from the 13th-14th century to the 17th-18th century. A range of body positions and physical interactions are featured, including intercourse. Plaques such as this are generally interpreted as illustrating types of lovers from the Kama Sutra, complied by Vatsyayana likely around the 3rd century CE, or from another of India's ancient treatises on love. The LACMA plaque presumably depicts one of the several forms of embrace enjoyed as a prelude to sexual union. Sets of these amorous plaques would have graced the beds of noble or wealthy lovers. The two flanges below the bottom border of lotus petals and the flange above the pavilion’s roof finial were used for mounting the plaque into slotted rails on the bed’s headboard or bedframe.
- Selected Bibliography
- Pal, Pratapaditya. Elephants and Ivories in South Asia. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1981.