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A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF MANJUSHRI NEPAL, 14TH CENTURY image 1
A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF MANJUSHRI NEPAL, 14TH CENTURY image 2
A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF MANJUSHRI NEPAL, 14TH CENTURY image 3
A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF MANJUSHRI NEPAL, 14TH CENTURY image 4
Lot 614

A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF MANJUSHRI
NEPAL, 14TH CENTURY

23 September 2020, 15:00 EDT
New York

US$35,000 - US$45,000

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A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF MANJUSHRI

NEPAL, 14TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no.16807
6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm) high

Footnotes

尼泊爾 十四世紀 銅鎏金文殊菩薩像

This thickly cast gilded bronze depicts Manjushri with his hands raised in the gesture of 'Furthering the Dharma'. From this action spring two lotuses that bloom at his shoulders and bear a sutra and a wisdom sword, which has the power to cut through ignorance.
 
The figure's smooth, golden skin and swelled physique counterbalance the angular detail of his regalia. Several stylistic factors indicate the hand of a 14th-century Nepalese craftsman likely working in Tibet. Chief among them is the artist's choice of modeling a lightly-clad, well-nourished physique, emphasizing a display of the young bodhisattva's robust limbs more than the textiles that cover them. Moreover, the crown type—a multitiered Vajracharya crown—is a type worn by a Nepalese priesthood. However, the bronze's tall lotus base is built to accommodate the Tibetan practice of consecrating sculptures. The base's bulbous lotus petals are redolent of the Pala style and help to inform a date of no later than a century or two after the widespread ruin of Pala monasteries in the early 13th century.

Provenance
Private German Collection
Nagel Auktionen, Stuttgart, 8 May 2014, lot 46

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