Bronze Parvati Statue with Baby Ganesha

Hollow-formed lower left leg with integral modelled sandal; open at the knee. 459 grams, 15.5 cm



English private collection. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

Formed as an arched doorway with cross finial above, the tympanum embellished with low-relief fronds and flowering plants; scalloped finial below with fleurs-de-lys and flowering plant; both doors with lozengiform panels and studded centres; reverse of both door panels decorated with central quatrefoils within nail-head roundels, flowering plants growing above and below; central panel showing Madonna and Child in high-relief, archangels Michael and Gabriel to left and right, Greek legends 'MP', 'ΘY', 'ICYC'; raised legend 'Geschützt' to back of central panel; suspension loop to reverse. 873 grams, 34.5 cm



Acquired from Germany. Property of a Swiss collector. Property of a Californian, USA, collector. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

Depicting Mary holding a lily flower with her right hand and supporting infant Jesus with her left arm; Jesus crowned by a crossed diadem and holding a gospel in his hand; background in gold thread, framed in a circular silver frame with dedicatory inscription to the reverse from a certain Alexander to the Jerusalem’s Archbishop Dositheus, reciting: + Τω ΜΑΚΑΡΙΟΤΑΤω ΚΑΙ CΟΦωΤΑΤω ΠΑΤΡΙΑΡΧΗ ΙΕΡΟCΟΛΥΜωΝ ΔΟCΙΘΕω ΤΙΜΗC ΕΝΕΚΕΝ – μηνι cεπτεμβριω 1698 – Αλεξανδρος – To His Beatitude and Enlighted Patriarch of Jerusalem Dositheus, as a sign of respect – September 1698 – Alexander; internal padding with floral decoration. 82 grams, 10 cm



Property of a London, UK, gentleman collector. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

The art of gold embroidery developed in Constantinople, with its own guild, and continued also after the end of the empire. Important artists like the legendary Despoineta, Mariora, Eusebia and Kokona, were famous in the 'painterly' rendering of religious subjects, not with the brush, but with the needle: red satin, and silver and gold wire created dresses, shadows, volumes with a sense of depth and sculptural quality. The artists conceived their works like a true prayer: a hope, based on human creativity.