338 - GROUP OF THREE INDIAN BRONZES 17TH TO 19TH CENTURY

GROUP OF THREE INDIAN BRONZES 17TH TO 19TH CENTURY Dimensions: Height 9 to 10,5 cm Weight: 435 grams all A group of three small Indian devotional bronzes, comprising two standing male deities identified as Vishnu together with a standing female deity, a female deity. The figures wear high crowns and jewellery and are set on individual integral bases; the central female figure adopts a gentle tribhanga, while the flanking images have a more frontal, hieratic stance. Vishnu and Lakshmi form one of the central divine pairings of Hindu tradition, associated respectively with cosmic preservation and with prosperity and auspicious abundance. Small bronzes such as these were well suited to domestic shrines, where portable images could be arranged, dressed, handled and worshipped as part of daily devotional practice. The three figures differ slightly in modelling and surface, consistent with their stated broad dating from the seventeenth to nineteenth century.