STÈLE DE SURYA EN PIERRE NOIRE INDE OCCIDENTALE, CIRCA XIIE SIÈCLESTÈLE DE SURYA EN PIERRE NOIREINDE OCCIDENTALE, CIRCA XIIE SIÈCLE60.5 cm (23 7/8 in.) highA BLACKSTONE STELE OF SURYAWESTERN INDIA, CIRCA 12TH CENTURY印度西部 約十二世紀 黑石太陽神石碑Provenance:With Claude de Marteau, Brussels, by 1970sStanding tall like a cosmic pillar and gazing formidably ahead, this sculpture of Surya has a commanding presence. As in other Indo-European religious systems, the Vedic sun-god rides a chariot through the sky, representing the sun's daily passage. Pictured below his feet, Surya's charioteer tightly pulls the reins on his team of seven horses, causing the central steed to rear its head. The massive lotus flowers flanked by budding shoots are similarly represented in a sandstone stele formerly in the Pan Asian Collection sold at Sotheby's, New York, 5 October 1990, lot 30. The present stele is carved from black phyllite, which was highly prized and imported from distant regions to be used for sculpture in temple interiors. Other closely related examples in black phyllite, depicting avatars of Vishnu, are published in Ghosh (ed.), Fashioning the Divine, 2006, pp. 102-3, no. 12, and Cummins (ed.), Vishnu, 2011, pp. 80 & 153, nos. 14 & 70.