Queen Sembiyan Mahadevi as the Goddess Parvati (front)

India, state of Tamil Nadu, Chola dynasty, ca. 990
Bronze
Purchase PI929.84

Artists' treatises outlined archetypal metaphors, such as pliant bamboo-shoot arms, for the depiction of goddesses, but the texts also stipulated perfectly straight shoulders for deities, as can be seen in the images of Shiva in this gallery. Here, sloping shoulders and a regal expression suggest that this is a portrait-sculpture of Queen Sembiyan Mahadevi, adorned and with hand raised to carry a lotus like the goddess Parvati, wife of Shiva. Sembiyan Mahadevi's son commissioned the sublimely graceful bronze to be carried in temple processions on her birthday.