Temple Dancer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This panel depicting a temple dancer was one of a pair that decorated the doorjambs or entablature of the entrance to a Sri Lankan temple or monastery. With the decay of a building's foundation timbers, such panels became independent objects. This example is very likely the pair to a panel that has been in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, since 1879. Both depict a female dancer dressed in a finely fluted skirt, framed by fern-like tendrils and a diamond lozenge-pattern border. The figure is poised in a dance and hand pose (karana) prescribed in the Indian classical dance manual, the Natyshastra. Stylistic parallels with temple wood carving, such as that seen at Embekke Devale in Kandy district, point to an eighteenth-century date.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art