Page 72 - Bonhams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art March 2019

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A PAIR OF PAINTED WOOD MANUSCRIPT COVERS A POLYCHROMED WOOD STUPA
WITH SYMBOLS OF SIXTEEN PILGRIMAGE SITES SRI LANKA, KANDYAN PERIOD, 18TH/19TH CENTURY
SRI LANKA, KANDYAN PERIOD, EARLY 19TH CENTURY 29 1/4 in. (74.3 cm) high
With original applied metal fittings inset with glass.
2 1/2 x 24 in. (6.4 x 61 cm), each $20,000 - 30,000
$10,000 - 15,000 斯里蘭卡 康提時期 十八/十九世紀 彩繪木質佛塔
斯里蘭卡 康提時期 十九世紀初 彩繪木製護經板一對
Through their function as relic chambers and their cosmological
These finely painted sutra covers depict symbols of sixteen pre-eminent symbolism, stupas (dagabas in Sri Lanka) celebrate Buddha’s lasting
pilgrimage sites in Sri Lanka, called the solosmasthana. Thirteen of these presence in this world and his departure from it. Formed of stacked
sites are stupas, represented in vivid red and ochre. The remaining three components, this large model is painted in the Kandyan period’s rich
are the Bodhi tree at Anuradhapura, the Buddha’s Footprint on Adam’s vermillion and ochre palette.
Peak, and the reclining Parinirvana Buddha at Divaguha. Sri Lankan
chronicles maintain that Gautama Buddha visited these sites, and most King Kirti Sri Rajasinha of Kandy (r.1747-82) patronized a Buddhist
were memorialized before the Common Era. When discussing a closely revival of art and monastic institutions, in the second half of the 18th
related pair of manuscript covers, Listopad provides a full list of the century, restoring and expanding many of Sri Lanka’s important
solosmasthana in Phoenix Art Museum, Guardian of the Flame, Phoenix, pilgrimage sites. Among them, the cave temples of Dambulla were
2003, pp.30 & 34. painted with brilliant colors, housing several stupas from which
The exterior sides of the manuscript covers match one another in design the present model likely takes formal inspiration. Resting within a
cylindrical base, the model emerges with deeply waisted circular rings,
and ornament, with delicately painted scrollwork and beveled edges of a beautifully curved bell-shaped dome, a rectangular harmika painted
repeated broad lotus petals in the Kandyan style. In a rare occurrence, the with lotus petals, and a delightfully voluminous tapering spire.
covers have retained their ornately designed, glass-inset metal buttons
which once secured the ends of a binding thread connecting each cover Exhibited
through holes in the manuscript’s folios. The British Museum retains similar Phoenix Rising, Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona, 16 April - 29 May 2016.
Kandyan buttons collected by a British civil servant between 1869-88
(As1898,0703.1700.a-e). This pair of Kandyan sutra covers compares Provenance
favorably to another of the same subject held in the Los Angeles County Private Collection, US, by 1957
Museum of Art (M.91.300.3a-b). Thence by descent
Published
Janet Baker et al., Sacred Word and Image: Five World Religions,
Phoenix, 2012, pp.62-3, figs.27a-b.
Exhibited
Sacred Word and Image: Five World Religions, Phoenix Art Museum,
Arizona, 4 January-25 March 2012
Provenance
Private Collection, US, by 1957
Thence by descent
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