45. STATUETTE D'UN NAGINI EN TERRE CUITE INDE DU NORD, ÉPOQUE GUPTA, VE SIECLE 29.5 cm (11 5/8 in.) high A TERRACOTTA FIGURE OF A NAGINI NORTH INDIA, GUPTA PERIOD, 5TH CENTURY 印度北部 笈多王朝 五世紀 陶塑蛇女像 Published: Arman Neven, Sculpture des Indes, Brussels, 1978, p. 69, no. 28. Exhibited: Sculpture des Indes, Société Générale de Banque, Brussels, 8 December 1978 - 31 January 1979. Provenance: With Claude de Marteau, Brussels, by 1978 As noted by Arman Neven, "The Gupta period was marked, in Uttar Pradesh, by the construction of many Hindu temples. The vast majority of these were made of bricks and their facing was covered with decorative friezes and mythological bas-reliefs consisting of terracotta plates." (see Neven, Sculpture des Indes, Brussels, 1978, p. 69), such as illustrated in the example here. Compare with a plaque of two female figures in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Pal, Indian Sculpture, p. 247, no. S124). Also see a sandstone image of a Nagini, published in Lerner and Kossak, The Flame and the Lotus, 1984, pp. 48-9, no. 14.