A GILT, LACQUER AND POLYCHROME WOOD PANEL WITH A PROTECTOR GODDESS

NEPAL, CIRCA 13TH CENTURY

Footnotes

The wonderfully preserved panel, surviving with rich colors and gilding, belongs to a well-known group housed within several institutions and private collections. Possibly the most significant single holding is kept within the David R. Nalin Collection published in Kerin, Artful Beneficence, New York, 2009, pp.74-9, cat. nos.41-42e.

Scholars believe that altogether they derive from the same Newari workshop, and would have contributed to the iconographic schema on the interior of related temples and shrines. Most panels portray a single deity framed by elaborate foliate scrolls like those seen within highly skilled Newari mandalas, corresponding to the aesthetic of the Early Malla period (13th/14th centuries).

This panel depicts one of the Pancha Raksha Goddesses, or "Five Protectors". Each is a personification of a sacred mantra and early Buddhist text, and promotes welfare and happiness. Another Pancha Raksha panel was sold at Bonhams, New York, 18 March 2013, lot 148.

Provenance
Private New York Collection

守護佛母漆金彩繪木雕板
尼泊尔，約十三世紀
喜馬拉雅藝術資源網30872號
23 x 43 釐米 (9 x 17 3/4 英寸)

200,000-300,000 港元

此木雕板品相完好，色彩浓郁，为广为人知的一组木雕板其中之一。該组作品现分别藏于多家機構及私人收藏，其中所持数量最多的或許为David R. Nalin收藏，相关藏品出版于Kerin，Artful Beneficence，紐約，2009年，頁74-9，41-42e号。

学术界認為此组作品均來自同一尼瓦爾作坊，原本应为相關寺院與神龕内部繪塑圖式之组成部分。大多數木雕板描繪一位神明，以細緻的葉狀渦卷框繞，工艺精湛的尼瓦爾曼陀羅绘画中亦见此类叶纹，皆呈現馬拉王朝早期（十三／十四世紀）之美學。

此木雕板描畫五護法佛母其中之一，此五位佛母皆为神聖咒語及早期佛經之化身，可帶來安寧與幸福。另一塊佛母木雕板于2013年3月18日在紐約邦瀚斯售出（148號拍品）。

來源
紐約私人收藏