Page 26 - Indian and Himalayan Art Mar 21, 2018 NYC

PROPERTY FROM AN ITALIAN ESTATE

308

A LARGE SILVER- AND COPPER- INLAID BRONZE FIGURE OF
SHADAKSHARI AVALOKITESHVARA
TIBET, 15TH CENTURY
18¿ in. (46 cm.) high
$120,000-180,000

PROVENANCE
Private collection, Italy, acquired by the family of the present owner
circa 1970; thence by descent.
LITERATURE
Himalayan Art Resource (himalayanart.org), item no. 24394

This large seated fgure of Shadakshari Lokeshvara exemplifes the melding of linear, contrasts with the plump rounded features of the Chinese sculptural
styles often found in Himalayan art. In particular, it displays distinctly Chinese style. The protruding arched eyebrows, elongated almond-shaped eyes and
qualities in the draping of the skirt and of the shawl, which is very similar straight narrow nose are all hallmarks of Tibetan physiognomy, as is the
to those seen in fourteenth century bronzes from China, such as in the late rectangular third eye inlaid with a colored stone. The simple necklace with
Yuan fgure of Marici in the Robert Bigler Collection (R. Bigler, Before Yongle: three jeweled drops, pointed arm bands and the foliate crown seem derived
Chinese and Tibeto-Chinese Buddhist Sculpture of the 13th and 14th Centuries, from Kashmiri or Western Tibetan images. Compare the jewelry, especially
Zurich, 2015, p. 34, fg.5). The present fgure, like the Bigler example, displays the crown, with an eleventh century Kashmiri or Western Tibetan bronze
a long narrow waist with the belt resting low on the belly. It is likely that the fgure of Avalokiteshvara in the Chiwang Monastery (Huo Wei and Li Yongxian,
present Shadakshari would have originally had a base very much like the the The Buddhist Art in Western Tibet, Chengdu 2001, p. 126, pls. 188-189). The
Bigler example. presence of scriptural scrolls within the consecration chamber further places
the fgure within a Tibetan Buddhist context.
While clearly infuenced by Chinese prototypes, the face and jewelry of the
西藏 十五世紀 嵌銀與紅銅四臂觀音菩薩像
present work are distinctly Himalayan in style. The face, which is square and

Huo Wei and Li Yongxian, The Buddhist Art in Western A bronze fgure of Marici; Dr. Robert R. Bigler,
Tibet, Sichuan Renmin Chubanshe, Chengdu, 2001, Before Yongle, Zurich, 2015, p. 35, cat. no. 5.
p. 126, pls. 188–189. Reprinted in Ulrich von Schroeder,
Buddhist Statues in Tibet, Serindia, Chicago, 2009,
pp. 60-61, pl. 11A.