The 1st century Kushan statue of a Nature Goddess on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) depicts an idealized image of femininity and the personification of nature. Carved out of mottled red sandstone and standing at 63 inches tall, the Nature Goddess commands a presence of a monumental entity in comparison to the viewer and her surrounding objects. Originally found in Mathura, India, the Nature Goddess evolves out of “water cosmology,” which is a term “encompassing the iconography and ritual practices of local based Indic cults, centered on the worship of natural forces” (Patel). Representations of nature were often anthropomorphized. Water was considered the ultimate life giving force to these local cults, while the female
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Her legs are pressed together with her body swaying slightly to the left, highlighting the curves of her ideal feminine form. The left hand holds some sort of shawl as it rests onto the hip, which further emphasizes her exaggerated hourglass form. The right hand, now broken off, “was likely raised with the hand forming the gesture of reassurance that was typical of early divine figures” (Pal 176). She is almost nude except for the beaded necklace, the low hanging skirt that covers her pubic area, and the shawl delicately falling off her shoulder. A branch with sprouting leaves, growing from the base of her feet, intertwines with her shawl and slithers up her body. Her back, in comparison to her front, is completely flat. Instead, the artist places greater emphasis on the dimension and volume of the tree branch that is attached to her back. The intricate treatment of the tree branch indicates that the Nature Goddess had intended to be worshipped and appreciated from all sides. The strong association with the tree “clearly signifies her importance as a nature goddess” (Pal 176). The Nature Goddess evokes the positive and regenerative forces of nature, which would be a theme and iconography adopted by the major religions of India such as Buddhism and Hinduism …show more content…
The curators could have further created a cohesive exhibition by tracing the influence of “water cosmology” and the female form as the symbol of life and abundance. Situated on the other side of the gallery, among the various fragments of Buddha statues, the Two Addorsed Tree Dryads from the Great Stupa at Sanchi, which would have created a compelling link between the theme and iconography of two different religions. The wall text for the Two Addorsed Tree Dyads speaks extensively about the ideal feminine beauty in Indian art, and also associates the female body with the regenerative forces of nature with the flowering branches that the women each hold onto. Conversely, many of the wall texts in the exhibition also highlights the significant symbols within each object, while the mode of curation, as a whole, does not seem to be organized around the symbolism in these religions. The main exhibition panel proclaims that the works “epitomize the artistic production associated with Hinduism and Buddhism.” However, the Nature Goddess stands out in her difference, because the curators did not attach her to any of the two major religions. She simply fits into the mold of female
Her legs are pressed together with her body swaying slightly to the left, highlighting the curves of her ideal feminine form. The left hand holds some sort of shawl as it rests onto the hip, which further emphasizes her exaggerated hourglass form. The right hand, now broken off, “was likely raised with the hand forming the gesture of reassurance that was typical of early divine figures” (Pal 176). She is almost nude except for the beaded necklace, the low hanging skirt that covers her pubic area, and the shawl delicately falling off her shoulder. A branch with sprouting leaves, growing from the base of her feet, intertwines with her shawl and slithers up her body. Her back, in comparison to her front, is completely flat. Instead, the artist places greater emphasis on the dimension and volume of the tree branch that is attached to her back. The intricate treatment of the tree branch indicates that the Nature Goddess had intended to be worshipped and appreciated from all sides. The strong association with the tree “clearly signifies her importance as a nature goddess” (Pal 176). The Nature Goddess evokes the positive and regenerative forces of nature, which would be a theme and iconography adopted by the major religions of India such as Buddhism and Hinduism …show more content…
The curators could have further created a cohesive exhibition by tracing the influence of “water cosmology” and the female form as the symbol of life and abundance. Situated on the other side of the gallery, among the various fragments of Buddha statues, the Two Addorsed Tree Dryads from the Great Stupa at Sanchi, which would have created a compelling link between the theme and iconography of two different religions. The wall text for the Two Addorsed Tree Dyads speaks extensively about the ideal feminine beauty in Indian art, and also associates the female body with the regenerative forces of nature with the flowering branches that the women each hold onto. Conversely, many of the wall texts in the exhibition also highlights the significant symbols within each object, while the mode of curation, as a whole, does not seem to be organized around the symbolism in these religions. The main exhibition panel proclaims that the works “epitomize the artistic production associated with Hinduism and Buddhism.” However, the Nature Goddess stands out in her difference, because the curators did not attach her to any of the two major religions. She simply fits into the mold of female