Page 46 - Bonhams NYC Portraits of the Masters Bronzes march 2017

3236
A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF JIGTEN SUMGON RINCHEN PEL
TIBET, 13TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no.2270
9 1/8 in. (23.3 cm) high

US$250,000 - 350,000
西藏 十三世紀 銅鎏金吉天頌恭仁欽貝像
The casting is flawless. Simple, yet elegant and powerful, a young man, with his head
held high, surveys his immediate environs. He was given the name Jigten Sumgon
Rinchen Pel (1143-1217), ‘Precious One, The Protector of the Three Worlds’, and his
Drigung Kagyu order dominated the political landscape of Tibet in the late 12th and 13th
centuries, enjoying great wealth and patronage.
The bronze is closely related to two important 13th-century sculptures that confirm its
identity. First is a heavily published example of Rinchen Pel held in the Musée Guimet, the
subject of a broad consensus since Stoddard’s recent research, which contends that it
was made in the early 13th century, situating it either within or shortly after the subject’s
lifetime (see Czaja & Proser (eds), Golden Vision of Densatil, New York, 2014, pp.68-9,
no.1). The second is held in the Potala Palace, published initially by von Schroeder as
14th century, but then later by Jackson as 13th. It bears an almost identical likeness to
the present lot (Jackson, Painting Traditions of the Drigung Kagyu School, New York,
2015, p.89, fig.5.12).
A third bronze of Rinchen Pel in the Collection Yang Zi is particularly useful for narrowing
the present bronze’s date of production (Huang, Xizang Dansatisi Lishi Yanjiu, Beijing,
2016, pp.60-1). It differs from the present lot in having a more quintessentially 14th-
century Densatil style lotus base, indicating that the bronze at hand was probably made
elsewhere. The most obvious place suitable for a commission of this magnitude would
have been Drigung monastery itself, which was sacked by the Sakya in 1290, suggesting
an end cap for the date of this bronze within the 13th century.

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