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A RARE STONE FIGURE OF A RECLINED MOTHER GODDESS, INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION
奥地利
12月16日 晚上6点 开拍 /6天18小时
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Description

A RARE STONE FIGURE OF A RECLINED MOTHER GODDESS, INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

Pakistan, c. 3000-2500 BC. Boldly carved as a voluptuous reclining woman, with legs together and slightly bent upwards, her abstracted arms resting on the abdomen beneath her prominent breasts, gently lifting them. The stylized head of the figure resting on the ground, as her gaze directs upwards. The fossiliferous stone, of whitish hue with grey inclusions, extensively covered with areas of opaque calcification and soil encrustation.

Weight: 1,175 g
Dimensions: Length 19.8 cm

Provenance: The collection of The Zelnik István Southeast Asian Gold Museum. Dr. István Zelnik, President of the Hungarian South and Southeast Asian Research Institute, is a former high-ranking Hungarian diplomat who spent several decades in Southeast Asia, building the largest known private collection of Asian art in Europe.
Condition: Fair condition, commensurate with age, with ancient wear and natural age-related imperfections, including fissures, some of which have developed into hairline cracks. Expected traces of weathering and erosion, with obvious losses, softened over millennia. Scattered small nicks and faint surface scratches. The stone surface with some areas with calcification and soil encrustation.

Anthropomorphic representations of both male and female figures have been recovered from numerous sites associated with the Indus Valley Civilization. These examples are typically characterized by a high degree of stylization, with an emphasis on the sexual attributes while deliberately omitting detailed treatment of the hands, feet, and facial features, as exemplified by the present figure, with its pronounced breasts and generously modeled thighs. The voluptuous contours of such figures were not conceived as erotic in nature, but rather as expressions of veneration for the generative power of the female body and its association with fertility and creation, although the precise significance of these representations remains elusive.

Expert’s note: In the ancient region of Baluchistan (present-day Pakistan), figurines such as the present example were predominantly made of terracotta and possess a long history extending from the Neolithic to the historical periods, often closely associated with religious practices. Unlike typical examples, the present lot is carved in stone, a medium chosen to endure, unaffected by the usual fragility of terracotta figures, which renders it extraordinarily rare and suggests that it was originally intended for an individual of prominence within the early urban societies emerging in the Indus Valley during the fourth millennium BC, at a time when regional communities were beginning to coalesce, interact, and establish structures of authority.

Literature comparison:
Compare a related Mehrgarh-style terracotta figure of a seated mother goddess, Indus valley civilization, Pakistan, 13.3 cm high, c. 3000-2500 BC, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 2001.305. Compare a related terracotta female figure, Indus valley civilization, Pakistan, illustrated in Akinori Uesugi, Ceramics and Terracotta Figurines from Balochistan of the Katolec Collection, 2017, p. 130, no. 210.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Zacke Vienna, 17 October 2025, lot 569
Price: EUR 2,860
Description: A terracotta figure of a seated mother goddess, Indus valley civilization
Expert remark: Compare the related subject and modeling of the figure, with corresponding female anatomical forms. Note the similar size (22 cm).

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拍品估价:800 - 1,600 欧元 起拍价格:800 欧元  买家佣金: 30.00%

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