Page 66 - Bonhams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art March 2019

867
A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF BUDDHA The bronze is related to a group of more than fifty 10th-century
SRI LANKA, LATE ANURADHAPURA PERIOD, 10TH CENTURY bronzes discovered in two hoards at Anuradhupura in 1968 and 1984,
3 1/8 in. (8 cm) high several of which are published in von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures
of Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, 1990, pp.204-7. However, unlike these
$20,000 - 30,000 bronzes, which scholars believe were produced en masse from molds,
the present lot was clearly individuated by its creator. The piece excels
斯里蘭卡 阿努拉德普勒時代晚期 十世紀 銅鎏金佛陀像 for its attractive face, well modeled physique, and condition, compar-
ing favorably to other c.10th-century bronzes sold at Sotheby’s, New
Surviving with traces of original gilding, this figure of Buddha in York, 24 March 2004, lot 40; 22 March 2018, lot 1018; and Christie’s,
meditation is a particularly handsome example of Sri Lankan Buddhist New York, 19 March 2014, lot 1095.
bronzes produced towards the end of the Late Anuradhapura Period
(432-1017 CE). Religious and cultural exchange between Anuradhapu- Published
ra and the Pallava and early Chola Kingdoms of South India inform a Phoenix Art Museum, Guardian of the Flame: Art of Sri Lanka, Phoenix,
number of the bronze’s stylistic features indicating a 10th-century date 2003, p.84.
(see Listopad, Phoenix Art Museum, Guardian of the Flame, Phoenix,
2003, pp.73-6). Among these features are its solid (as opposed to Exhibited
hollow) casting, the contrasting proportions between Buddha’s slender Guardian of the Flame: Art of Sri Lanka, Phoenix Art Museum, 8
waist and broad shoulders, the introduction of the monastic shawl February - 11 May 2003; The Cantor Art Center, Stanford University, 2
(sanghati) over his left shoulder, and the roundness of his face. March - 12 June 2005; University of Virginia Art Museum, 21 January -
19 March 2006.

Provenance
Private Collection, US, by 1957
Thence by descent

868

64 | BONHAMS