Page 106 - Bonhams IMages of Devotion, Hong Kong Nov 30 2022

1038
A GILT COPPER REPOUSSÉ PLAQUE OF A DEITY
NEPAL, CIRCA 17TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no. 30573
36 cm (14 1/8 in.) high
HKD150,000 - 250,000
尼泊爾 約十七世紀 銅鎏金錘揲神祇飾板

Newari artists of the Kathmandu Valley were esteemed for their metal working
techniques. Fashioned from hammering copper sheets of metal into decorative
designs, repoussé was often the technique used to ornament architectural
facades in Nepal. Typically large in scale, these ornamental features dense in
detail, would have added a rich gilt surface to architecture that was equally
elaborate in design.

Featured here in this repoussé deity, is a mysterious form related to Manjushri, the
god of Wisdom, insinuated from the sword raised over his head. With seven heads
and twelve arms, his hands placed in the mudra associated with teaching, and
the sword, lotus, arrow and bow, suggest parallels to Manjurava, an esoteric form
of the Wisdom deity. The broad foreheads, floral earrings, collar necklace, and
flaming aureoles speak both to the technical acumen of the Newari artisans and
to the artistic proficiency of their designs in the 17th and 18th centuries. Compare
to other repoussé illustrated in von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong,
1981, pp. 390-1, no. 107B-D. Also compare it with a smaller cast and repoussé
figure of Manjuvajra sold at Bonhams, New York, 16 March 2021, lot 317.
Published
Pratapaditya Pal, A Collecting Odyssey: Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian
Art: from the James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, Chicago, 1997, pp. 231 &
342, no. 306.
Exhibited
On Loan to the Art Institute of Chicago, by repute
Provenance
Purchased from Shawn Kassimi, New York, circa 2007
Alsdorf Collection
Private California Collection

104 | BONHAMS