block
- Museum number
- 1961,0519.8
- Description
-
Architectural block containing a woman, presumably a yakṣī, rising out of acanthus leaves. A female figure, framed in a deep architectural block, wearing a sleeved high-girt tunic with a scarf, emerges looking to her left out of acanthus leaves and holding a large flower by its stalk in her right hand. Her headdress is a cross-hatched wreath with a central flower above curled hair and her ornaments are globular earrings, a collar and a bracelet. The acanthus leaves appear to form a cup of two curved leaves rising from a disc or knotted stalks at the bottom, join at several points and droop at the sides; two more leaves beside the figure and towards the back of the recess reach almost to the top of the frame.
The top and sides of the frame are moulded and have sawtooth enrichment.
- Production date
- 2ndC-3rdC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 7.60 centimetres
-
Height: 15.80 centimetres
-
Width: 15.80 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Zwalf 1996:
If the function of this piece matches that of BM 1961.0519.9, which shows an atlas, it may have been used under a cornice. For an almost identical piece of almost the same height (15.8 cm) but slightly narrower see Chandigarh 1235 (AIIS 439-59 and the Warburg Institute photographic archive).
For caryatids rising out of acanthus see BM 1880.60 and 58. For a woman emerging from acanthus on an architectural fragment at Aphrodisias see Squarciapino, 1943: pl. XXI. For nearer full-length figures rising from acanthus on capitals at Miletus see Krauss, 1973: figs 233-40. For almost full-length figures out of vegetation on pilaster panels at Leptis Magna see Squarciapino, 1974: pls LXXXIII-V. For the human protome emerging from acanthus in a memorial and funerary context, seen on sarcophagi and so on, see Jucker, 1961. For figures rising out of acanthus on capitals in the West see Mereklin, 1962, and in Gandhāra BM 1880.172; for stupa peg protomes see BM 1892.1103.78, 1959.0717.1 and 1949.0718.48.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- 1.Light grey schist, chipped and worn.
2.Top flat, partly smooth with cramp mortise to each side; sides flat and smooth; narrow left side slopes inwards slightly to join broad chamfer to back which has horizontal chisel grooves.
- Acquisition date
- 1961
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1961,0519.8