The Body Adorned

Sacred and Profane in Indian Art

Vidya Dehejia (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

219 Seiten

2009
Columbia University Press (Verlag)
978-0-231-14028-7 (ISBN)

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The sensuous human form-elegant and eye-catching-is the dominant feature of premodern Indian art. From the powerful god Shiva, greatest of all yogis and most beautiful of all beings, to stone dancers twisting along temple walls, the body in Indian art is always richly adorned. Alankara (ornament) protects the body and makes it complete and attractive; to be unornamented is to invite misfortune. In The Body Adorned, Vidya Dehejia, who has dedicated her career to the study of Indian art, draws on the literature of court poets, the hymns of saints and acharyas, and verses from inscriptions to illuminate premodern India's unique treatment of the sculpted and painted form. She focuses on the coexistence of sacred and sensuous images within the common boundaries of Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu "sacred spaces," redefining terms like "sacred" and "secular" in relation to Indian architecture. She also considers the paradox of passionate poetry, in which saints praised the sheer bodily beauty of the divine form, and nonsacred Rajput painted manuscripts, which freely inserted gods into the earthly realm of the courts.
By juxtaposing visual and literary sources, Dehejia demonstrates the harmony between the sacred and the profane in classical Indian culture. Her synthesis of art, literature, and cultural materials not only generates an all-inclusive picture of the period but also revolutionizes our understanding of the cultural ethos of premodern India.

Vidya Dehejia holds the Barbara Stoler Miller Chair in Indian Art at Columbia University. She was chief curator and deputy director, as well as acting director, of the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C. She is an established scholar whose publications have ranged from ancient Buddhist art to the esoteric temples of North India, and from the sacred bronzes of the South to the art of British India. Her recent publications include Chola: Bronzes from South India; India Through the Lens: Photography, 1840-1911; Devi: The Great Goddess; and Delight in Design: Indian Silver for the Raj.

List of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgments 1. The Body as Leitmotif 2. The Idealized Body and Ornament 3. The Sensuous Within Sacred Boundaries 4. To the Divine Through Beauty 5. Inserting the Gods in the World of Men: Rajput Painted Manuscripts Afterword. The Body Revealed and Concealed: Issues of Intention and Perception Notes Bibliography Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	26.2.2009
Zusatzinfo	70 illus.
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Malerei / Plastik
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften
ISBN-10	0-231-14028-2 / 0231140282
ISBN-13	978-0-231-14028-7 / 9780231140287
Zustand	Neuware