Lot 45
A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF BUDDHA UNDER MUCHALINDA CAMBODIA, LATE KHMER, LATE 12TH CENTURY
29 March 2018, 16:00 HKT
Hong Kong, Six Pacific PlaceHK$50,000 - HK$70,000
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A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF BUDDHA UNDER MUCHALINDA
CAMBODIA, LATE KHMER, LATE 12TH CENTURY
32.5 cm (12 ½ in). high
32.5 cm (12 ½ in). high
Footnotes
柬埔寨 高棉晚期 十二世紀 七龍佛銅像
Provenance:
Private UK collection
Formerly in a UK collection formed in the 1980s
Bonhams, London, 6 October 2015, lot 98
Private Collection, Singapore
This iconic image of Siddartha Guatama's pursuit of enlightenment shows the scene when torrential rain threatened to drown him. The king of the nagas, Muchalinda, rose from the earth, coiling his body to form a seat swelling his great hood to shelter Buddha beneath his seven-headed canopy. Buddha is wearing a short loincloth around his waist, adorned with elaborate jewellery, a crown or headdress surrounding his hair piled high and surmounted by a conical ushnisha, his face with serene expression, downcast eyes and hands held in his lap holding a stupa or fruit.
Few early examples of this type appear to be recorded. This well-modelled naga hood will in later stylistic development dissolve into greater ornamentation. Compare with a closely related example in the Eilenberg Collection, see Lee, Ancient Cambodian Sculpture, 1969, p.92, fig.54, and two other examples in G. Coed/ges, Bronzes Khmers, 1923, plate XXI, figs 1 and 2; and with a larger bronze sold at Christie's New York, 20 March 2002, lot 11.