Page 136 - Bonhams Fine Chinese Art November 2018

The present lot with its sensuously curved body cast in the round, with
no opening into the figure from underneath, is extremely rare not only
for its aesthetic beauty encapsulating the high level of craftsmanship
achieved in 12th/13th century Tibet, but also for exhibiting certain traits
before fixed iconographic conventions had emerged.

Firstly, the figure would have been holding a lotus stem, now lost,
between the middle finger and her thumb. Later iconography of
White Tara, however, usually depicts the deity holding the lotus stem
between her ring finger and thumb. Secondly, this early figure follows
more closely Indian iconography before the introduction of the Tibetan
innovations of five additional eyes (on the forehead, palms and soles of
the feet). Of the two originally Indian traditions of depicting White Tara
known in Tibet (both without depicting the additional five eyes) one is
the tradition of Atisha, the other of Bari Lotsawa. The Atisha tradition
depicts Tara with a curved body, while the Bari tradition depicts Tara
with a straight upper body. The present lot therefore follows the Atisha
tradition.

A related but larger (64.5cm high) bronze figure of a crowned
Ratnasambhava, circa 1300, is illustrated by U.von Schroeder,
Buddhist Sculpture in Tibet, vol.II, Hong Kong, 2001, p.1131,
fig.XVIII-4. The similar curve of the upper body can be found on
another bronze statue of Avalokiteshvara, Tibet, 12th century,
illustrated by M.M.Rhie and R.A.F.Thurman, Wisdom and Compassion:
The Sacred Art of Tibet, New York, 1996, p.138, no.29.

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