Unknown
Tympanum with the Dancing Shivacirca 1750

Not on view

No image

Artist or Maker: Unknown
Title: Tympanum with the Dancing Shiva
Place Made: Nepal
Date Made: circa 1750
Medium: Wood
Dimensions: 32 x 60 in. (81.28 x 152.4 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Lenart
Accession Number: M.76.48.3
Classification: Architecture
Collecting Area: South and Southeast Asian Art
Curatorial Notes: One of the main architectural features of Indian and Nepalese temples is the large lunette-shaped tympanum over the entrance doorway known as a moon-window (chandrashala) or cow’s eye (gavaksha). In this richly carved Nepalese wooden tympanum, the central deity is the Hindu god Shiva dancing on his bull mount Nandi. He is flanked by two celestial drummers and two animal-headed attendants each holding a kettledrum in their upraised hands. Above the divine quartette is an archway (torana) with writhing Chinese dragons, anthropomorphized serpents (nagas), mythical aquatic creatures (makara) in the lower corners (see M.85.279.6), all set against a foliate and flame background. In the now-damaged apex of the arch, originally there would have been a Garuda, the half-avian, half-human mount of the god Vishnu, serving as an apotropaic motif. Carved in four sections, the entire hemispherical tympanum rises from a lotus base. See also M.87.274 and M.86.125a-c.
Selected Bibliography: Pal, Pratapaditya. Art of Nepal. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; University of California Press, 1985.
Leidy, D.P. The Cosmic Dancer: Shiva Nataraja. New York: The Asia Society, 1992.
McGill, Forrest, editor. Beyond Bollywood: 2000 Years of Dance in the Arts of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayan Region. San Francisco, CA: Asian Art Museum, 2022.

Unknown
Tympanum with the Dancing Shivacirca 1750

Not on view

No image

Artist or Maker: Unknown
Title: Tympanum with the Dancing Shiva
Place Made: Nepal
Date Made: circa 1750
Medium: Wood
Dimensions: 32 x 60 in. (81.28 x 152.4 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Lenart
Accession Number: M.76.48.3
Classification: Architecture
Collecting Area: South and Southeast Asian Art
Curatorial Notes: One of the main architectural features of Indian and Nepalese temples is the large lunette-shaped tympanum over the entrance doorway known as a moon-window (chandrashala) or cow’s eye (gavaksha). In this richly carved Nepalese wooden tympanum, the central deity is the Hindu god Shiva dancing on his bull mount Nandi. He is flanked by two celestial drummers and two animal-headed attendants each holding a kettledrum in their upraised hands. Above the divine quartette is an archway (torana) with writhing Chinese dragons, anthropomorphized serpents (nagas), mythical aquatic creatures (makara) in the lower corners (see M.85.279.6), all set against a foliate and flame background. In the now-damaged apex of the arch, originally there would have been a Garuda, the half-avian, half-human mount of the god Vishnu, serving as an apotropaic motif. Carved in four sections, the entire hemispherical tympanum rises from a lotus base. See also M.87.274 and M.86.125a-c.
Selected Bibliography: Pal, Pratapaditya. Art of Nepal. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; University of California Press, 1985.
Leidy, D.P. The Cosmic Dancer: Shiva Nataraja. New York: The Asia Society, 1992.
McGill, Forrest, editor. Beyond Bollywood: 2000 Years of Dance in the Arts of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayan Region. San Francisco, CA: Asian Art Museum, 2022.