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A BRONZE FIGURE OF SARASWATI A SILVER- AND COPPER-INLAID GILT BRONZE
FIGURE OF MAITREYA
TIBET, 18TH CENTURY
5 in. (12.5 cm.) high WESTERN TIBET, POSSIBLY GUGE KINGDOM, 16TH CENTURY
7æ in. (19.5 cm.) high
$12,000-18,000
$25,000-35,000
PROVENANCE
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, New York, early 2000s.
Acquired by the current owner from the above in 2016. Collection of Alan Robert Naftalis, New York.
Acquired by the current owner from Bonhams San Francisco, 18 June 2007,
PUBLISHED lot 6160.
Himalayan Art Resource (himalayanart.org), item no.24295 PUBLISHED
西藏 十八世紀 辯才天女銅像
Himalayan Art Resource (himalayanart.org), item no.86330
Saraswati, the “one with the lovely voice,” is the goddess of music and poetry.
Initially a Hindu deity, her image was eventually absorbed into Buddhism and 西藏西部 可為古格時期 十六世紀 嵌銀和紅銅鎏金銅彌勒菩薩像
became prevalent throughout Buddhist Asia as the epitome of female wisdom
and the consort to the bodhisattva Manjushri. The crisp, precise casting and Inlaid with silver eyes and copper lips, this fne bronze fgure of Maitreya
rich dark brown patina of the present work make it an eloquent example of an bears stylistic similarity to works associated with the ancient Kingdom of
eighteenth century artist paying homage to the Pala-period aesthetic of the Guge in Western Tibet. Compare with a bronze sculpture of Vajradhara at
eleventh and twelfth century. Compare the dark patina, tall pointed crown, the Rubin Museum of Art (HAR item no. 65759) which displays similar facial
shape of the scarf and the proportions and style of the lotus base with a features originating in early Kashmiri prototypes, most notably the high
smaller twelfth century fgure of a Bodhisattva from the Sporer Collection, sold arching eyebrows, wide almond-shaped eyes with protruding lids, and small
at Christie’s New York on 15 September 2015 (lot 8). bow-shaped lips. Compare the thin, tightly rendered petals of the double
lotus base with a Guge Kingdom bronze fgure of Nairatmya from a private
collection (HAR item no. 30555).
