Page 17 - September 20th 2021, Indian and Himalayan Art Christie's NYC
P. 17

Property Of The Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts
 Sold To Benefit Future Acquisitions



 PROPERTY OF THE VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, SOLD TO BENEFIT
 FUTURE ACQUISITIONS
 406
 A RARE BRONZE FIGURE OF PADMAPANI  印度東北部   帕拉王朝   十一/十二世紀   銅蓮華手觀音坐像
 NORTHEASTERN INDIA, PALA PERIOD, 11TH-12TH CENTURY
 來源:
 4æ in. (12.1 cm.) high  Nasli及Alice Heeramaneck伉儷珍藏,鈕約,1969年前。
 $40,000-60,000  維吉尼亞州藝術博物館,入藏於1969年 (館藏編號69.8.39)。
 PROVENANCE:
 Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, New York, before 1968.
 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, accessioned in 1968 (acc. no. 68.8.39).
 LITERATURE:
 Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 24663.




 Powerfully cast despite its small size, Padmapani Lokeshvara, the
 bodhisattva of compassion, is seated in a languid  lalitasana  pose.
 His benevolent gaze and slight grin both veer leftward, an assured
 expression surmounted by an elaborate topknot of dreadlocks (jatas). A
 long lotus stem wraps around his left wrist, while the other lotus stalk
 grows from the base. Two bands of wonderfully flared petals build the
 signature Pala-style double lotus base, framed by heavy beaded rims.

 This refined and well-provenanced bronze is product of the important
 Pala dynasty that flourished in eastern India from the eighth to the
 twelfth century — one of the last strongholds of Buddhism in India, as
 the  subcontinent became increasingly  Hindu  by the  eleventh century.
 The period saw a surge in travel in the region among Buddhist
 practitioners and laypeople to sacred sites associated with Buddha
 Shakyamuni.  With  this  came the  expanded  propagation  of  Buddhist
 texts and religious icons, particularly bronze sculpture, which were
 easily transported by pilgrims. As a result, Pala bronze work achieved an
 exceptional level of sophistication and to this day, is revered as one of the
 golden eras of the Indian sculptural tradition.

 The Pala style traveled from India to Nepal, China and Tibet, and served
 as an important foundation for sculptural and painting traditions in
 subsequent centuries. The double-lotus base over the stepped plinth
 is, for instance, a widely-used style created during this period and
 emulated widely for many centuries thereafter. The lasting influence is
 clear as even much later Tibetan workshops continued to emulate Pala
 styles;  for  example,  see  a  seventeenth-to-eighteenth  century  Tibetan
 bronze figure of Padmapani sold at Christie’s New York 20 March 2019,
 lot 616 (Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 24470), demonstrating clear
 Pala influences through the figure’s languid pose, double lotus base, and
 heavy lotus stalks flanking either shoulder, hallmarks of the Pala style.
 Also compare the present lot to a contemporaneous figure of Manjushri,
 also formerly in the Nasli and Alice Heeramenack Collection, published
 by U. von Schroeder in Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 2008, p. 282,
 no. 69B. Both works demonstrate the Pala artists' masterful casting
 of languorous poses and similar stylistic elements such as the flared
 petals, beaded rims, and fashioning of the lotus stalks.   (reverse)
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