Page 74 - 2020 September 23 Himalyan and Southeast Asian Works of Art Bonhams

637
A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF BUDDHA
SRI LANKA, ANURADHAPURA PERIOD, 8TH CENTURY
3 in. (7.5 cm) high

$40,000 - 60,000

This rare and early Buddhist bronze from Sri Lanka’s Late Anuradhapura period (691-1017
CE) has elegant proportions and delightful facial features. His hands resting in his lap have
well-modeled digits and his slender waist, underneath a sheer monastic garment, gives rise to
broad shoulders. With almond-shaped eyes, high cheekbones, and a smile gently lifting the
corners of his mouth, the Buddha is depicted in blissful meditation. A small flame elicits from
the top of his head; a beacon of his enlightened mind, characteristic of Sri Lankan bronzes.

The flame’s relatively diminutive size is a telling marker of the bronze’s 8th-century date,
situating it on the earlier side of Late-Anuradhapura bronzes which were produced up until the
early 11th century. Also telling are the absence of two stylistic developments that arise by the
8th century: a widow’s peak and a monastic shawl (sanghati) draped over the Buddha’s proper
left shoulder (Listopad, Guardian of the Flame, Phoenix, 2003, pp.73-6). Later bronzes are
more numerous and less nuanced, exhibiting a gradual trend towards the production of multiple
iterations from the same molds (ibid., pp.75-6).

Having a unique character and an attractive patination, this piece is a particularly handsome
example which should be ranked among similar, renown versions, such as those in the
Cleveland Museum of Art, the National Museum, Colombo, and arguably the finest in the
Kronos Collection (see, von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures of Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, 1990,
pp.189, 192 & 195, nos.46E, 48A & 49H, respectively).

Provenance
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Bull, Villanova, Pennsylvania
Sotheby’s, New York, 6 December 1983, lot 278
Private West Coast Collection

72 | BONHAMS