Page 82 - 2019 September 11th Christie's New York Chiense Art Himalayan bronzes and art

THE PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTOR
335
A LARGE SOLID-CAST GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF
BUDDHA SHAKYAMUNI
SRI LANKA, KANDYAN PERIOD, 18TH CENTURY
22¿ in. high (56.2 cm.)

$100,000-150,000

PROVENANCE
Private collection, Southwestern United States, by the 1950s, by repute.
Christie’s New York, 19 September 2002, lot 201.
The present work is a masterful example of late Sri Lankan Buddhist sculpture,
with its broad shoulders, undulating folds of drapery, and large and crowning
siraspata all emphasized by the rich gilding. Its importance is underscored by
its massive size and weight, due to the solid-cast method employed by the
Buddhist image makers of the Kandyan period.
After a period of decline lasting a few centuries, Buddhism was revived
throughout the Kandyan kingdom in the second half of the eighteenth century
under the King Kirti Sri Rajasinha (r. 1747-1782), who encouraged Buddhist
monks from Burma and Thailand to emigrate to Sri Lanka, and heavily
patronized the Buddhist institutions within his kingdoms. In accordance with
texts dating from as early as the ninth century, all Buddhist images in Sri
Lanka were required to be solid-cast; as such, heavy molds were often used in
the Kandyan period, resulting in a remarkable consistency of style. However,
while Kandyan sculpture is consistent in its broad-shouldered outline, there
is considerable variation in the rendering of the robe, with various degrees
of undulation in the wave patterns of the folds, as well as the hemline of the
sanghati draped across the left shoulder.

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