Yakshi and attendant / Artist Unknown, India, North India

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Record Details

Accession Number
1980/2.285
Title
Yakshi and attendant
Artist Nationality
Indian
Medium and Support
terracotta
Object Creation Date
2nd century
Object Creation Place
Asia (continent)
India (nation)
Uttar Pradesh (state)
Creation Place 1
Asia (continent)
Creation Place 2
India (nation)
Creation Place 3
Uttar Pradesh (state)
Style/Group/Movement
miniature terracotta
Dimensions
12.5 cm x 10 cm x 2.5 cm (4 15/16 in. x 3 15/16 in. x 1 in.)
Century
2nd century
Primary Object Classification
Sculpture
Primary Object Type
figure
Physical Description
This broken fragment depicts a now headless goddess or yakshi standing with a much smaller male attendant. She wears a necklace, bracelets and a girdle consisting of three rows of small round shapes. She stands with her left hand at her waist and the right hand next to the head of her attendant. He wears a turban and large earrings and a belt of a single line of round shapes. They both wear diaphanous lower garments that make them appear nude with both of them with their genitals exposed. The fragment is broken above the male figure’s knees and below the yakshi’s knees.
Subject Matter
Yakshi images, like mother goddesses, have a long history in Indian art. Yakshi are nature goddesses, associated with trees and fertility. In this charming terracotta, a yakshi is attended by the figure of a small male figure. Although the figures may appear to be naked, each actually is wearing a diaphanous garment from the waist down. The swelling volumes of the figures mimic the voluptuous forms found in the stone sculpture of the period. This small image was probably pressed into a mold, rather than modeled by hand.
Early terracotta sculptures such as those on view in the exhibition were once dismissed as “folk art,” but today they are given serious scholarly attention and eagerly collected on the international art market.
Rights
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Technical Details

Image Size
821 x 1071
File Size
91 KB
Record
1980/2.285
Link to this Item
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1980-sl-2.285/1980_2.285.jpg

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https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/api/manifest/musart:1980-SL-2.285:1980_2.285.JPG

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"Yakshi and attendant; Artist Unknown, India, North India." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Art. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1980-sl-2.285/1980_2.285.jpg. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed March 19, 2024.
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