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A GILT COPPER FIGURE OF A PROTECTOR GODDESS The ‘Five Protectors’, or Pancha Raksha Goddesses, each personify
NEPAL, 14TH CENTURY a sacred mantra and early Buddhist text and promote welfare and
Himalayan Art Resources item no.58586 happiness. This sculptural representation exhibits all the traits of a
3 3/4 in. (9.5 cm) high personal icon that has been propitiated and cherished throughout its
devotional career, leaving the goddess with an alluring glossy brown
patina. Compare her to an equally worn Durga of similar scale, sold by
$50,000 - 70,000
Bonhams, 18 March 2013, lot 142.
尼泊爾 十四世紀 銅鎏金守護女尊 An 11th century eighteen-armed goddess Chunda in the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art modeled in the same manner is a clear
antecedent to the present lot (Pal, Art of Nepal, Los Angeles, 1985,
p.98, no.S18). See also a slightly later Durga in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, which shares the same masterful arrangement of
fanned arms and superb modeling of the torso (acc.#1986.498). The
masterful 13th-century shrine to Durga in the Rubin Museum of Art is
also relevant (HAR item no.65433).
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