A BRASS AND BRONZE FIGURE OF GANESHA

Description:

South India, Nayak period, 18th cent.
H. 15,8 cm
Seated in lalitasana on a lotus base cast to its front with a minute animal representing his vehicle the rat, his ten arms radiating around his body, one embracing his consort seated on his left leg and resting with her feet on a lotus issued by the main base, the other hands holding various attributes, wearing dhoti fastened with a belt around his prominent belly, bejewelled, his elephant’s head with slit eyes placed above his curling trunk, pair of tusks, one broken, a pair of large ears and his head topped with the specific helmet.
From the collection of the chemist, engineer and director of Merck & Co. Heinrich Georg Johann Harms (3.9.1906-28.6.1975) and his wife Eva Harms (10.11.1905-13.10.1998), largely collected in Shanghai between 1935 and 1942 - Slightly chipped, minor wear