Page 27 - Christie's Inidian and HImalayan Works of Art, March 2019

618
A BRONZE FIGURE OF SARASVATI emulated sculpture from diferent periods and
TIBETO-CHINESE, 18TH CENTURY geographic areas, using as models the bronzes
5 in. (12.7 cm.) high given as gifts from Tibetan dignitaries to the
Qing court. Examples of Pala-style sculpture,
$20,000-30,000
from ninth-twelfth century Northeastern India,
as well as seventeenth-eighteenth century works
PROVENANCE reviving that earlier style, still remain in The Palace
Christie’s New York, 25 March 1999, lot 93
Museum Collection; see, for example, a near
identical bronze fgure of Sarasvati, also in the
Tibetan Buddhism was patronized by the Qing
emperors, particularly the Kangxi Emperor (1662- Pala Revival style, illustrated in Buddhist Statues
1722) and his grandson, the Qianlong Emperor of Tibet – The Complete Collection of Treasures
(1736-1795), both for personal and political of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2003, p. 199,
reasons, resulting in a surge in the production of cat. no. 190.
Buddhist sculpture and painting. During the reign
Himalayan Art Resources (himalayanart.org),
of Qianlong, the artisans of the Beijing workshops
item no. 24493.
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