Page 142 - Bonhams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art March 2019

916
A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF TARA
TIBET, DENSATIL STYLE, CIRCA 14TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no.61917
7 in. (17.7 cm) high
$200,000 - 300,000

西藏 丹薩替风格 約十四世紀 銅鎏金度母像

Richly adorned with inset jewels, and skillfully modeled with rounded forms, this elegant
gilded image of Tara was created in the 14th-century aesthetic of the famed central Tibetan
monastery of Densatil.

Close stylistic parallels can be drawn between the present work and a number of gilt bronze
sculptures confidently attributed to Densatil Monastery. A bronze Mahamantranusarini held
in the Museum Rietburg, for example, shows the same type of lower garment decorated
with rows of single and clustered jewels divided by raised beaded lines (Uhlig, On the Path
to Enlightenment, Zurich, 1995, p.162-3, no.107; identified as Ashtabhuja Tara). The two
also have the same broad bangles, large round earrings centering jeweled flowers, and
armbands with a five-jeweled triangular design secured by a beaded chain.

Tara’s hair is neatly arranged into a fan-shaped chignon bound into five vertical sections
each decorated with a jewel on top. The same treatment appears on a renown
Parnashavari in the Kinney Collection, originally placed on the “Tier of Offering Goddesses”
of a tashi gomang stupa at Densatil (see Czaja & Poser, Golden Visions of Densatil, New
York, 2014, pp.120-1, no.24). This hairstyle is also worn by four offering goddesses on
a Densatil plaque published in von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981,
p.431, no.113G. Furthermore, the plump lotus petals modeled into a near teardrop shape
closely resemble those of a Densatil Akshobhya also in the Museum Rietberg (see Czaja &
Poser, op. cit., pp.130-1, no.28).

The Nyingjei Lam Collection has a gilt bronze Tara almost identical to the present work
(see Weldon and Singer, The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam
Collection, London, 1999, p.110-1, no.22). Weldon and Casey Singer discuss the many
features betraying a Newari stylistic heritage and attribute the Nyingjei Lam Tara to 14th-
century south central Tibet associated with the Densatil style.

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