Imre Jakabffy (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 1. (Budapest, 1973)

HORVÁTH, Vera : Additional material to the iconography of the so called bearing-Goddess

VERA HORVÁTH ADDITIONAL MATERIAL TO THE ICONOGRAPHY OF THE SO CALLED B E A R I N G - G O D D E S S From the pieces of our Indian terracotta collection a little figurine forms the subject of our examination. The figurine, along with other works of art, was presented to the museum by Imre Schwaiger in 1936. The fragment of the figurine represents a naked woman in a sitting posture. The head and the face is covered by a pointed tight head-dress which encompasses the head and the face entirely. In the face the round eyes dominate, the eyelids are unmarked. The nose protrudes, forming a so called beak-profile, it is comparatively small, its length does not exceed the size of the large, round eyes. On the other hand the fleshy, thick mouth is disproportionally big in comparison to the nose. The head is connected without neck with a flat trunk, from which the intact right breast protruds a little while the left breast is missing entirely. The large middle-decoration of the girdle is a lotus-rosetta worn on the waist and marked only in front-view, that is the figurine's only decoration it does not wear any jewels. The right arm is considerably bent, the right hand rests on the loin. The left arm and left hand are missing. Only the upper part of the drawn-up and outstreched right leg has remained the left leg is missing. The figurine is made of hard baked grey clay, which, as on the damaged surfaces can be seen well, was painted red. Its height is 7.4 cm. The small-size clay figurine modelled by hand as a composition from artistic point of view is primitive. From its place of origin and time of origin and under what circumstances it was found we do not know anything. Zoltán Felvinczi Takáts writing about the works of art from the Kushan period in his study

1 gives a short description of the figurine not mentioning the figurine's posture. But the closed, tight head-dress, what he regards as a Persian bashlik did not escape his attention. In his study he considers to be important and emphasizes the ethnographic richness what can be found in the Kushan art. The etnographic variety can be explained by a mixed population of many races who lived in the Kushan Empire and it can be expected from the theme as well that the representation comes from the Kushan period. Edit Tóth's opinion in her study

2 about the Kushan ceramics agrees with that of Mr. Takáts's concerning the time of origin, she turns her attention to the figurine's posture what she considers to be an erotic representation. 55