A BACTRIAN LAPIS LAZULI SEATED FEMALE FIGURE

A BACTRIAN LAPIS LAZULI SEATED FEMALE FIGURE
Presumably Bactria-Margiana, circa late 3rd to early 2nd millennium BC. Composed of a lapis lazuli body and a separate stoneware head, wearing a kaunakes, or tufted garment, indicated by incised lines, the neckline V-shaped in front and rounded in the back, white head set into a recess on its flaring neck, the oval face with a prominent nose and recessed eyes.
Condition:
Commensurate with age, wear, signs of weathering, encrustations, minor losses. The body with breakage and repairs, remnants of adhesive, and the head with a few minuscule chips. Otherwise, good condition.
Provenance:
The collection of The Zelnik Istvan Southeast Asian Gold Museum. Institutional art collection in Belgium, acquired from the above. Dr. Istvan Zelnik, President of the Hungarian South and Southeast Asian Research Institute, is a former high-ranking Hungarian diplomat who spent several decades in Southeast Asia, building the largest known private collection of Asian art in Europe.
Weight: 3,048 g
Dimensions: Height 15.4 cm
Small statuettes like the present lot have been produced by the Oxus civilization, which existed between 2300 and 1700 BC in Central Asia. This culture produced the rather distinct type of female statuary also known as 'Bactrian Princesses'. Most of them are seated composite figures. As the Oxus civilization, due to its strategic position in Central Asia, had intense links with neighboring cultures, these small figures also reveal a certain Mesopotamian influence. Despite their name, the 'Bactrian Princesses' are nowadays believed to be depictions of female deities who played a regulatory role in the natural order, pacifying the untamed forces embodied by lions, snakes, or dragons, rather than being portraits of members of the noble elite.
Literature comparison:
Compare a related seated female figure also wearing a tufted garment, see pls. 114-115 in Ligabue and Salvatori, eds., Bactria, an Ancient Oasis Civilization from the Sands of Afghanistan. The authors postulate (p. 177, op. cit.) that the horizontal lap of these figures may have served as an offering table.
Auction result comparison:
Compare a related statue sold at Christie's New York in Antiquities, 9 June 2011, lot 19, for
USD $68,500.