Page 124 - Christies Alsdorf Collection PART 2 Sept 24 2020 NYC

崇聖御寶 - 詹姆斯及瑪麗蓮 ·阿爾斯多夫珍藏

937

A GILT-COPPER FIGURE OF RATNAPANI 尼泊爾離車毗時代 十/十一世紀 鎏金銅寶手菩薩坐像
NEPAL, LICCHAVI STYLE, 10TH-11TH CENTURY
來源:
Seated in lalitasana with the right hand extended in varadamudra, the left holding the stem
Peaceful Wind，美國新墨西哥州聖達菲，1996年9月20日。
of a lotus which supports three flaming jewels at his left shoulder, clad in a sanghati, the
詹姆斯及瑪麗蓮·阿爾斯多夫珍藏，芝加哥。
hems incised with a stipple pattern, adorned with a beaded sacred thread, necklace and
foliate armlets, the face with downcast eyes surmounted by a three-petaled crown, the
hair piled into a chignon with locks escaping over the shoulders
4¡ in. (11.2 cm.) high
$20,000-30,000

PROVENANCE:
Peaceful Wind, Santa Fe, 20 September 1996.
The James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, Chicago.

This fine example of Licchavi-style sculpture in Nepal depicts the bodhisattva
Ratnapani, identifiable by the triratna or triple jewels atop the lotus stalk at the left
shoulder. Cast in lustrous copper, the figure is defined by flowing lines and soft
features, and exemplifies the elegance of form of post-Gupta sculpture. Traces of
blue polychrome extant on the hair suggest that this bronze was later absorbed into a
Tibetan collection.

Compare the elegantly coiled jata or plaits; the earrings and necklace with foliate
and teardrop motif; and the foliate girdle of the present lot with a contemporaneous
Licchavi-style bronze figure of the bodhisattva Ratnapani, currently on view at the
Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California (acc. no. F.1972.45.13.S).

Compare, also, the ornamentation of the tripartite crown and the necklace adorned
with triple-teardrop motif of the present lot with a slightly earlier ninth-tenth century
Licchavi-period bronze depicting the bodhisattva Manjushri from the Nyingjei Lam
collection, illustrated by D. Weldon and J.C. Singer in The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet:
Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, London, 1999, pp.88-9, pl.11.

(reverse)

122 PART II