Two Beautiful Women (Surasundari) Dressing with an Attendant

Art Institute of Chicago

Two Beautiful Women (Surasundari) Dressing with an Attendant

IndiaLinkedCulture matchlcp-1953a76f7207

Date
10th/11th century
Medium
Sandstone
Culture
Madhya Pradesh
Department
Arts of Asia
Institution
Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID
130622

From the Art Institute of Chicago record

This sculpture of semidivine women, likely intended for the exterior of a temple, illustrates how the sacred and the sensuous are intertwined in Hinduism. Such figures of female abundance—with full breasts and wide hips, wearing heavy jewelry—are associated with fertility and prosperity. These women are engaged in adorning themselves: one uses a mirror to apply vermilion to the part atop her head, and another wrings water from her long hair. Their idealized forms infused the temple and surrounding land with vitality, linking external and spiritual beauty as pathways to the divine.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line
James W. and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection. Gift of Marilynn Alsdorf
Provenance
With Spink & Son, London, by 1982 [London 1982]; James W. Alsdorf (1913–1990) and Marilynn B. Alsdorf (1925–2019), Winnetka and Chicago, IL, by Feb. 8, 1983 [according to the collecting practices of the Alsdorfs; Chicago 1983]; by descent to Marilynn B. Alsdorf, Chicago, 1990 [on long-term loan at the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 8, 1983, signed a promised gift agreement for the work, 2008]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2021.

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Object type
AAT300190691

Part of a LinkedCulture topic

  • Representative object from the topic Buddhist and Hindu Iconography
    Buddhist and Hindu Iconography

    These objects are connected by their representation of sacred figures and deities from Buddhist and Hindu religious traditions across Asian cultures, including sculptures, paintings, and ritual objects depicting buddhas,

    183 objects from 5 institutions

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