Scientific Analysis Report: A thermoluminescence sample analysis was conducted by Arcadia, Tecnologie Per I Beni Culturali, Milan. The result is consistent with the suggested period of manufacture. A copy of the thermoluminescence analysis report, dated 20 January 2023, accompanies this lot.

Of rectangular form, exquisitely modeled with a goddess standing atop a jar, her right hand placed on her hip and her left lowered, the body with narrow shoulders, heavy breasts, wide hips, and attenuated limbs, richly adorned in jewelry and wearing an elaborate headdress, surrounded by children and attendants within an architectural frame.

Provenance: An important private collection of a distinguished gentleman in Milan, Italy, assembled in the 1990s and early 2000s. Leonardo Vigorelli, Bergamo, Italy, acquired from the above. Leonardo Vigorelli is a retired Italian art dealer and noted collector, specializing in African and ancient Hindu-Buddhist art. After studying anthropology and decades of travel as well as extensive field research in India, the Himalayan region, Southeast Asia, and Africa, he founded the Dalton Somaré art gallery in Milan, Italy, which today is being run by his two sons.
Condition: Commensurate with age. Extensive wear, firing flaws, minor losses, nicks, scratches, chips, signs of weathering and erosion, and encrustations. Four major cracks and associated losses have been professionally restored. Overall presenting remarkably well.

Dimensions: Height 50 cm (excl. stand) and 52 cm (incl. stand)

Fitted with a modern metal stand. (2)

Terracotta was the traditional material for religious images in the Ganges Valley and in the Mauryan and Shunga periods (3rd-1st century BC). Considerable numbers of terracotta plaques have also been excavated at the ancient urban site of Chandraketugarh, in Bengal, suggesting that they served as icons for personal devotion in households or were placed at outdoor shrines. All are dominated by a hieratically enlarged central female figure whose precise identity is unknown to us. In this early phase of image worship in India, the goddess routinely appears with weapons projecting from her headdress, a form later associated with Durga. She is naked, apart from heavy jewelry and a massive hip belt. The honorific umbrella suggests she is a deity, as does the lowered hand gesture denoting the granting of boons.

Chandraketugarh is a 2,500 years old archaeological site located near the Bidyadhari river, about 35 km northeast of Kolkata, India, once an important hub of international maritime trade. The Asutosh Museum of Indian Art conducted excavations on the site from 1957 to 1968, which revealed relics of several historical periods, although the chronological classification remains incomplete to this day. Most of the Chandraketugarh terracottas are now in collections of museums in India and abroad, and only a few remain in private collections. According to some historians, the Chandraketugarh site and surrounding area could be the place known to ancient Greek and Roman writers as having the same name as the river Ganges.

Literature comparison:
Compare a related terracotta plaque, 26.7 cm high, attributed to Chandraketugarh and dated 1^st century BC to 1^st century AD, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 1990.281.