FLORY (Marcel) — MARTIN (André) — The Temples of Khajuraho - Lot 125

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FLORY (Marcel) — MARTIN (André) — The Temples of Khajuraho - Lot 125
FLORY (Marcel) — MARTIN (André) — The Temples of Khajuraho FLORY (Marcel). — The Temples of Khajuraho. Foreword by Raja Rao. Photographs by André Martin. [Paris], Delpire, 1965. “Le Génie du lieu” series, No. 5. Oblong quarto (approx. 24 × 26 cm), publisher’s illustrated photographic hardcover with a typographic dust jacket, 162 pp., abundant black-and-white and color photographic illustrations. The BnF confirms the 1965 Delpire edition; bibliographic catalogs list 162 pages and the format as 24 × 26 cm. First edition of one of the beautiful photographic volumes in Robert Delpire’s “Le Génie du lieu” collection, dedicated to the famous temples of Khajuraho, India. Text by Marcel Flory, preceded by a preface by the Indian writer Raja Rao, and photographs by André Martin. The book combines historical and artistic analysis with extensive photographic documentation devoted to the architecture and, above all, the monumental sculpture of the Hindu temples of Khajuraho. The institutional bibliography clearly confirms this three-way collaboration between Flory, Rao, and Martin. The editorial design is particularly characteristic of the books produced by Delpire in the 1960s: large-scale photographic spreads, double-page spreads, and running text alternating with spectacular typographic compositions and graphic motifs inspired by the subject. The dust jacket features a description of the Khajuraho sculptures in very large type—“carved heads, rigid limbs, and twisted figures…”—punctuated by small red emblems. The photographic hardcover, entirely different from the dust jacket, features a full-surface reproduction of a sculpted detail from the temples. Inside, certain typographic double-page spreads reproduce ancient inscriptions, notably the one attributed to the reign of Yasovarman and dated 954; the photographs depict statues, pillars, architectural decorations, and sculptures from the Kandariya Mahadeva. It is thus both a book on Indian art and a collector’s item representative of 1960s French editorial design, which makes it more interesting than many standard monographs on Khajuraho. Dust jacket preserved, slightly rubbed and quite heavily speckled with foxing; photographic board cover and interior in good condition.
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