"Pratima" antique polychrome wood devotional statuette, Bali, Indonesia, circa 1920-1950

"Pratima" antique polychrome wood devotional statuette, Bali, Indonesia, circa 1920-1950.

A ritual statuette from Bali (Indonesia). It represents a female figure with the stylised features particular to Balinese iconography, wearing a crown, jewellery and ceremonial dress decorated with dots and symbolic bands of colour. The object is carved in a soft wood and polychromed in red, yellow and white, with a substantial patina and pronounced wear, evidence of its age and of religious use.

The left arm is partly missing, damage that does not, however, compromise the formal and typological reading of the object. The figure stands on an integral plinth, which suggests its function as an object fixed in a shrine or in a stable ceremonial setting.

In Balinese tradition pratima statuettes are held to be embodiments of the divine spirit, whether temporary or permanent, and are used in family or community temples. They are not decorative objects but sacred receptacles, activated ritually through consecration and offerings. Each pratima has a role within the cosmology and the ceremonial cycle, and is usually associated with a local deity or a deified ancestor.

The style of the work suggests a probable dating to the first half of the twentieth century, given the wear, the palette and the stylisation of the face and the dress. The paint is applied by hand directly onto lightly prepared wood, without a white ground, which confirms a vernacular but religiously functional production.

Height: 23 cm
Material: Soft wood (possibly pule or jackfruit).

Condition:

• Integrity: good, with a partial loss to the left arm

• Polychromy: original, with numerous losses to the surface layer and a pronounced patina

• Stability: a sound structure, with no major cracks