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A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF THE SECOND KARMAPA, A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF A LAMA
KARMA PAKSHI TIBET, 15TH/16TH CENTURY
TIBET, 14TH/15TH CENTURY Himalayan Art Resources item no.2307
Himalayan Art Resources item no.2306 6 3/4 in. (17.2 cm) high
5 1/4 in. (13.5 cm) high
US$20,000 - 30,000
US$15,000 - 20,000
西藏 十五／十六世紀 喇嘛銅像
西藏 十四／十五世紀 二世噶玛巴噶瑪巴西銅像
On the basis of iconography and the remnants of black pigment in
Identified by the black hat of the Karmapas, his telltale goatee, the cap, Dinwiddie tentatively suggested that this bronze depicts
and his signature ‘mind refreshing’ mudra, the bronze depicts the the Eleventh Karmapa, Yeshe Dorje (1675-1702), but the 15th/16th-
Second Karmapa, Karma Pakshi (1204-1283), aged with a sagacious century style of the lotus base indicates an earlier hierarch. If a
countenance, perhaps seasoned by his turbulent relationship with the Karmapa, then the Fifth, Deshin Shegpa (1384-1415), also appears
Yuan emperor Kubilai Khan (1215-1294), as Dinwiddie suggests. with this iconography, and yet the sculptor has clearly taken great
pains to depict a more elderly individual than either could possibly
Compare with another in Chen, Sattvas & Rajas: The Culture and Art have been, based on their rather short lifespans. Moreover, the
of Tibetan Buddhism, 2004 (HAR item no.32250). Other portraits of absence of clouds lining the cap’s lappets opens his identity to
Karma Pakshi from the 15th century sold at Christie’s, New York, 17 more possibilities, such as the Jonang and Sarpa lineages. He has a
October 2001, lot 99, and 18 September 2013, lot 318. remarkable and distinctive portrait that will likely be identified in time.
Published Published
Portraits of the Masters, pp.162-3, no.29. Portraits of the Masters, pp.172-3, no.33.
David P. Jackson, Patron and Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of
the Encampment Style, New York, 2009, p.52, fig.3.24 (misattributed Published & Exhibited
to the Nyingjei Lam Collection). Monasterios y Lamas del Tibet, p.184, no.134.
Published & Exhibited Provenance
Monasterios y Lamas del Tibet, p.174, no.122. Sotheby’s, London, 10 July 1973, lot 101
Provenance
Sotheby’s, New York, 23 March 1995, lot 184
40 | BONHAMS
