Page 34 - Sotheby's Indian Himalayan and Southeast Asian Wroks of Art March 2019

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PROPERTY FROM THE 6TH MARQUESS AND PROVENANCE Indra is worshiped in Nepal by Hindus and
MARCHIONESS OF ABERDEEN AND TEMAIR Buddhists alike. In the Hindu tradition the god
th
Gifted to Alastair and Anne Aberdeen, 6
A GILT COPPER FIGURE OF INDRA Marquess and Marchioness of Aberdeen, circa is often referred to by his epithet Sahasraksha
WITH INSET SEMI-PRECIOUS STONES 1990. ‘The One with a Thousand Eyes’, symbolised
AND TURQUOISE BLUE PASTE The Collection of Adam Stainton. by the horizontal mark on his forehead in the
form of an eye. In Buddhist mythology Indra is
Nepal, 14th Century The figure is cast in copper, fire gilded and regarded as devaraja, the king of the gods. Indra
adorned with the distinctive combination of Jatra, a pageant in honour of the god, takes
the god Indra, distinguished by the characteristic garnet and turquoise coloured settings typical
horizontal mark on the forehead indicating a of Kathmandu Valley metal sculpture. Indra’s place in Kathmandu each year in one of the
most important religious festivals of the Newar
third eye, wearing a diaphanous dhoti and a characteristic seated position, asana, evoking community.
sash over the legs, with gem-set armbands, luxurious royal ease, embodies the sensuous
necklace and upavita, lotus-form earrings and quality of Nepalese sculpture in one of the most This Nepalese statue of Indra was in the personal
the god’s distinctive crown inset with garnets and elegant iconographic postures in all Himalayan collection of Adam Stainton (1921-1991), a British
turquoise blue paste, the god seated in elegant art. The combination of the maharajalila asana botanist and renowned collector of Himalayan
maharajalilasana with right arm resting on the and the tall mitre-like crown are iconographic plants. Under the aegis of George Taylor at
raised right thigh, the right hand in vitarka mudra elements seen only in Nepalese depictions of the the botany department of the British Museum,
and the left supporting his weight behind and god Indra. Compare the asana and crown style Stainton joined John Williams and William Sykes
holding Indra’s emblem the vajra thunderbolt of a fifteenth century gilt copper Nepalese Indra on the museum’s 1954 expedition to survey and
Himalayan Art Resources item no. 13621. from the Duke of Northumberland’s collection, collect plant samples in the Nepalese Himalayas.
He would return to Nepal on subsequent trips
Height 10 in. (25.4 cm.) Sotheby’s New York, 17 September, 2014, lot
442, and a thirteenth century example in the funded by his own personal wealth. Stainton
$ 200,000-300,000 Norton Simon Museum, Pratapaditya Pal, Art of published Forests of Nepal in 1972. He sponsored
the Himalayas and China, New Haven and London, the Japanese expert on Himalayan flora, Hiroshi
2003, p. 85, cat. 52. While the posture and the Hara, to travel to London and work with William
specific crown type remain consistent in all three T. Stearn and L. H. J. Williams on the British
sculptures, the mudra of the right hand differs in Museum publication An Enumeration of the
each. Dr Pal explains this as artistic preference Flowering Plants of Nepal published in 1978.
with no profound iconographic or theological Stainton collaborated with Oleg Polunin on
implications, ibid. Compare the sculptural style Flowers of the Himalaya published in 1984. As
and stylistic detail of a Nepalese gilt copper Uma- a legacy of his work in the Himalayas, more
Maheshvara with inset gems dated 1345, see than twenty Nepalese plant species now bear
Ian Alsop, “Five Nepalese Metal Sculptures”, in Stainton’s name. In later years Stainton gifted
Artibus Asiae, Ascona, MCMLXXXIV, pp. 207-21, the statue of Indra to close family friends,
th
Fig. 3. Alastair and Anne Aberdeen, 6 Marquess and
Marchioness of Aberdeen.

32 SOTHEBY’S INDIAN, HIMALAYAN & SOUTHEAST ASIAN WORKS OF ART