Page 172 - Christie's Asian Art Auctions PARIS December 2019

ƒ213
RARE STATUE DE PADMAPANI EN BRONZE DORE
NEPAL, DANS LE STYLE LICCHAVI, CIRCA XVIIEME SIECLE
Il est représenté en tribhanga sur un socle lotiforme. Sa main droite
est en varadamudra, sa main gauche en vitarkamudra tient une tige
de lotus. Il est paré de bijoux et vêtu d'un dhoti incisé de feurs. Son
visage est empreint de sérénité. Ses cheveux sont coifés en un haut
chignon.
Hauteur: 24,8 cm. (9æ in.)
€70,000-90,000 US$78,000-100,000
£61,000-78,000
PROVENANCE:
Collection of Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge, United States of America.
Sotheby's Park Bernet, New York, 7 October 1975, lot 247.
American private collection, acquired in New York, 23 December
1975.
Christie's New York, 21 March 2012, lot 835.
Property of a Southeast Asian collector.
A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF PADMAPANI
NEPAL, LICCHAVI REVIVAL STYLE, CIRCA 17TH CENTURY
尼泊爾 李察维風格 約十七世紀 鎏金銅蓮花手菩薩立像
來源：
美國藏家Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge舊藏
紐約蘇富比，Park Bernet，1975年10月7日，拍品247號
美國私人舊藏，于1975年12月23日購自紐約
紐約佳士得，2012年3月21日，拍品825號
東南亞藏家珍藏

This handsome and relatively large gilt-bronze sacred image
represents a manifestation of Avalokiteshvara or the bodhisattva
of Compassion. This specifc form displays two arms of which one
hand is holding the stem of the padma-lotus that fowers along
his left upper arm. Hence its name of Padmapani, a form that
remained throughout the ages extremely popular in Nepal. The
earliest examples were executed in stone and date from around the
sixth century although earlier prototypes must have existed. Endless
versions of this image were well made into the nineteenth century
and it is often not easy to precisely date individual representations.

Indeed this Padmapani fgure shows a strong reminiscent of Licchavi
examples dating back to circa the eight century. Its suave modelling,
elegant simplicity and a gentle, introspective facial expression are
clearly derived from such early religious works of art. Compare this
gilt-bronze fgure for instance with a late Licchavi bronze seated
Buddha example discussed as lot 229. The Licchavi prototypes for
this work were as well prized throughout Tibet and Mongolia and
must have inspired Newari artists of the seventeenth and eighteenth
century in the creation of these new sculptures though based on
these ancient examples.

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