Page 67 - Bonhams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art March 2019

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A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF BUDDHA occasionally incorporated features from Burmese Buddha images
SRI LANKA, DIVIDED KINGDOMS PERIOD, 16TH CENTURY (cf., von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculpture in Sri Lanka, Hong Kong,
4 1/8 in. (10.4 cm) high 1990, pp.448). A gold repoussé plaque from Burma in the Asian
Art Museum, San Francisco (2005.89) provides an example of the
$10,000 - 15,000 Burmese pointed finial that inspired the present bronze’s caster or
patron.
斯里蘭卡 十六世紀 佛陀銅像
Published
This plucky Sri Lankan Buddha belies the turmoil of the Divided Phoenix Art Museum, Guardian of the Flame: Art of Sri Lanka,
Kingdoms Period (13th-16th centuries) in which it was created. Phoenix, 2003, p.126.
The Divided Kingdoms Period comprised three hundred years
of internecine conflicts among small Sinhalese kingdoms, amid Exhibited
successive waves of European imperialists. Despite the period’s lack Guardian of the Flame: Art of Sri Lanka, Phoenix Art Museum, 8
of a consistent central political authority and Buddhist patron, Listopad February - 11 May 2003; The Cantor Art Center, Stanford University, 2
identifies a number of typical stylistic features, such as the rounded March - 12 June 2005; University of Virginia Art Museum, 21 January
face and sheer robe, which continue earlier Sinhalese traditions. - 19 March 2006.
Other features that inform a 16th-century date more specifically for
this bronze are its prominent right nipple and the pronounced hemline Provenance
running underneath it (Phoenix Art Museum, Guardian of the Flame, Private Collection, US, by 1957
Phoenix, 2003, pp.57-9 & 116-7). Thence by descent

Meanwhile, this sculpture’s pointed finial is a rare trait for a Sri Lankan
bronze, denoting the island’s historic relationship with the Buddhist
kingdoms of Myanmar. While Theravada Buddhists of Southeast
Asia consider Sri Lanka the preserving source of Buddhist wisdom,
on several occasions Sinhalese rulers called on Burmese monastic
emissaries to revitalize endangered Buddhist institutions at home.
One consequence of this relationship is that Sri Lankan artists

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