A LARGE BRONZE FIGURE OF RAMA, VIJAYANAGAR PERIOD
Southern India, 16th-17th century. Heavily cast, standing in tribhanga, wearing a diaphanous dhoti and richly adorned with sacred thread and beaded, floral, and pendent jewelry, his quiver hanging from his right shoulder. The powerful face with large almond-shaped eyes, a broad nose, and full lips, surmounted by a conical headdress, and backed by a shirashchakra.

Provenance: UK trade, by repute acquired from an English private collection.
Condition: The figure is in fine condition with some old wear, the bow and arrow lost, small nicks, dents and losses, light scratches, the foot rim smoothened. Fine, naturally grown patina.

Weight: 4,660 g (the figure) and 231.5 g (the base)
Dimensions: Height 29 cm (excl. base) and 31.8 cm (incl. base)

With a cast-bronze octagonal footed base incised with a central lotus flower encircled by a band of petals, most likely dating from the same period or slightly later. (2)

Literature comparison: Compare a related bronze figure of Rama, 22.3 cm high, dated to the 14th century, in the Ashmolean Museum Oxford, accession number EA2013.98.a.

Auction result comparison: Compare a closely related figure of Rama, 24.1 cm high, also dated 16th-17th century, at Sotheby's New York in Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Works of Art on 22 March 2018, lot 1019, sold for USD 13,750.