A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF THE PRECIOUS ELEPHANT

QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY

Footnotes

清 十八世紀 銅鎏金象寶

The modeling of this golden elephant conveys its limbs with muscular contours, and its ears and snout with delightful wrinkles and folds. The elephant's head is turned slightly to one side to reveal the wish-fulfilling gem he proffers with his trunk. His back supports an emblem of the Three Jewels of Buddhism (triratna) securing a jeweled caparison of semi-precious stones and bell pendants dangling over his legs and head, adding movement to his pleasing rounded form.

Elephants are symbols of majesty, power, endurance, self-control, and gentleness in Buddhism. This sculpture of a bejeweled elephant more specifically represents the Precious Elephant, which is one of the Seven Treasures of the chakravartin, or 'universal monarch'. The mythical concept of the Buddhist chakravartin originated in India, where rulers rode elephants in both battle and peaceful processions. Many Buddhist rulers strove to personify a chakravartin, including Qing emperors, who produced several gilt-bronze sets of the Seven Treasures arising from lotuses, two of which can be seen in Treasures of Imperial Court [Gongting zhenbao], 2004, pp.212-3, pl.189; Cultural Relics of Tibetan Buddhism Collected in the Qing Palace [Qinggong Zangchuan fojiao wenwu], 1998, p.182, pl.138. Another contemporaneous example of the Precious Elephant is in the Mengdiexuan Collection, published in Jewels of Transcendence, 2018, p.295, pl.198. By contrast, the bell and triangular leaf pendants on the present sculpture's regalia suggest it was more likely produced in Tibet during the Qing period, likely at a monastic seat of power.

Provenance:
Ulrich von Schroeder, 1970s
Private Swiss Collection