Chola bronze Nataraja

Meanwhile in the West

Admired worldwide as a masterpiece of metal art.

Fair to say

An artistic masterwork; some modern symbolic readings are interpretive.

Path to modern innovation

An enduring icon of Indian art and physics-of-motion symbolism.

Builds on

• 2,600 BCELost-wax (cire perdue) bronze casting

Transmission

Cast by the lost-wax method (see separate entry).

Museum objects

• Shiva as Lord of Dance (Shiva Nataraja)The Metropolitan Museum of Art, late 12th–early 13th centuryCC0, Met Open AccessUnreviewed
• Shiva as Lord of Dance (Nataraja)The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ca. late 11th centuryCC0, Met Open AccessUnreviewed
• Karaikkal Ammaiyar, Shaiva SaintThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, ca. late 13th centuryCC0, Met Open AccessUnreviewed
• Yashoda with the Infant KrishnaThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, early 12th centuryCC0, Met Open AccessUnreviewed
• Shiva as Vanquisher of the Three Cities (Shiva Tripuravijaya)The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ca. 1000–1020CC0, Met Open AccessUnreviewed
• Hanuman ConversingThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, 11th centuryCC0, Met Open AccessUnreviewed

References

• 1Art-historical studies of Chola bronzes

Further reading

• 2Wikipedia: Nataraja