Page 26 - 2020 September 23 Himalyan and Southeast Asian Works of Art Bonhams

612
A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF GREEN TARA
NEPAL, 14TH/15TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no.16817
5 3/8 in. (13.7 cm) high

$40,000 - 60,000

尼泊爾 十四/十五世紀 銅鎏金綠度母像

Appearing as a supple young woman seated in ‘royal ease’ with her mudras conveying
generosity and spiritual teaching, this finely cast gilt bronze depicts one of the most beautiful
representations of the female bodhisattva, Tara. According to myth, Tara was born from a
lotus bud arising from a tear of compassion shed by Avalokiteshvara. She is worshipped
as a liberator, able to free devotees from the chain of birth and rebirth, and all the suffering
that ensues. In the present iconography, she is represented in a form known as Green Tara,
emphasizing Tara’s protection from The Eight Great Dangers.

This delicate casting of Green Tara would have been produced by a Newari master craftsman
for a Tibetan patron. Stylistic details that betray a Newari’s hand include the full, rounded
plasticity of the figure, the finely engraved patterns within her lower garment, and the crisp
petals and deeply recessed waist of the lotus base from which the sensuous goddess blooms.
Meanwhile, the remnants of a consecration plate, inlay, and the inclusion of inset lapis and
turquoise indicate Tibetan religious and stylistic preferences.

The figure’s physiognomy and graceful bearing resemble a bronze of White Tara formerly in the
Alsdorf Collection (von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, p.428, no.112A),
and a Green Tara sold at Poly Auction, Beijing, 7 December 2016, lot 6962. See Bonhams,
New York, 13 March 2017, lot 3034 for a similar treatment of the lotus base. The present
sculpture also compares favorably with another 14th-century Green Tara with a similar crown,
lotus flowers, and deeply recessed base published in Grewenig & Rist (eds.), Buddha: 2000
Years of Buddhist Art, Völklingen, 2016, p.436, no.191. Another close comparison is a silver
sculpture in the Rubin Museum of Art, New York (HAR 65468), which is clearly made after the
same model.

Provenance
Swiss Private Collection since 2009

24 | BONHAMS