Location
Stuart Street, Kingswell Lane, Banff
Banff, Banffshire
Description
Built into house wall above entrance door on east side of street. A small stone carving showing two female and one male nude figures. This is a small sculpture about a foot across and set quite high up. The female figure on the left has suffered some unfortunate censorship (unintentional I hope) by cement render.
It is thought that the owner of the house at the time travelled widely and some are of the opinion that it may in fact be a piece of Indian Hindu sculpture brought back to Banff in the 18th century. Indeed now we have a higher resolution image I have no doubt that this work is Indian in origin: the details of jewellery, body ornaments and coiffure also the voluptuous female figures, the poses and the style of the columns all suggest an erotic temple sculpture. It also appears to be of great age. Perhaps of medieval or even earlier date it is certainly not a piece of pre-reformation European religious art.
Related Information
Described in the 'Annals of Banff' as 'possibly pre- Reformation date and may represent expulsion from the Garden of Eden p.372,
Era
Unknown
Categories
Iconography
- human figure
Photographer
- David Watson Hood
Unavailable Data
- OS Map Reference
- Date
- Information Source
- Related Artefacts
- Creator
- External Links
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