page_title: Art of Mathura
section_title: Medieval period (7th-16th century)
hierarchical_section_title: Art of Mathura / Medieval period (7th-16th century)
caption_attribution_description: English: A female Yaksha, called a Yakshi. India, 10th century. Sandstone, Madhya PradeshFrançais&#160;: Buste féminin adossé à un rinceau. Inde, Madhya Pradesh ou Râjasthân. Epoque médiévale, Xe-XIe siècle de notre ère. Grès, H.&#160;: 78 cm - L.&#160;: 38 cm. MA 3176. Musée national des arts asiatiques - Guimet. Personal photograph, 2004. Musee Guimet. Released in the Public Domain.
context_page_description: The Art of Mathura refers to a particular school of Indian art, almost entirely surviving in the form of sculpture, starting in the 2nd century BCE, which centered on the city of Mathura, in central northern India, during a period in which Buddhism, Jainism together with Hinduism flourished in India. Mathura "was the first artistic center to produce devotional icons for all the three faiths", and the pre-eminent center of religious artistic expression in India at least until the Gupta period, and was influential throughout the sub-continent.
  Chronologically, Mathuran sculpture becomes prominent after Mauryan art, the art of the Mauryan Empire. It is said to represent a "sharp break" with the previous Mauryan style, either in scale, material or style. Mathura became India's most important artistic production center from the second century BCE, with its highly recognizable red sandstone statues being admired and exported all over India.
context_section_description: The Medieval period followed, in which Hindu art became largely prevalent in the art of Mathura and India as a whole. It was accompanied by the decline of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent.
  In many ways, Gupta art had represented the zenith of the art of Mathura, with its beautiful and elegant creations. In the Medieval period, efforts were made at emulating Gupta art, but the technical level in sculpture decreased significantly. Many of the qualities found in Gupta art start to vanish during this period, such as the spituality of the sculptures, their elegant slimness and suppleness. As the country disintegrated, so did the arts, the artistic rendering becoming coarse, formal and stereotyped. Some decadent effects are obtained by the increase in ornament, the enlargement of crowns, the multiplication of arms and the profusion of attendant deities. The rendering of the human figure becomes rather artificial and highly stylized, relying heavily on the curbed Tribhanga pose.
caption: A Yakshini, 10th century, Mathura, India. Guimet Museum.
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