A BONE FIGURE PROBABLY OF RAMA ORISSA, CIRCA 17TH CENTURYA BONE FIGURE PROBABLY OF RAMAORISSA, CIRCA 17TH CENTURY9 cm (3 1/2 in.) high奧里薩邦 約十七世紀 骨雕神祇像 或為羅摩This superbly modeled, dynamic figure likely represents Rama and would have been a part of a larger group illustrating a scene from the Ramayana. The figure is carved in a battle pose, brandishing the remaining hilt of a weapon in the right hand and the remains of a bow in his left.The treatment of the face, tiered crown, and exaggerated torso, corresponds to figure cast in brass from Orissa variously attributed between the 15th and 19th centuries. Compare a pair of examples depicting Rama and Lakshmana sold at Bonhams, New York, 19 March 2019, lot 85, and another of Krishna published in van Alphen, Cast for Eternity, Antwerp, 2005, p. 95, no. 25. Also see an Orissan ivory plaque depicting Krishna and gopis, sold at Sotheby's, London, 6 September 2015, lot 121.Provenance:Private California Collection, acquired in Cape Town in the 1980s