BRASS LOKESHVARA SHADAKSHARI STATUETTE WITH SILVER... Lot 6

BRASS LOKESHVARA SHADAKSHARI STATUETTE WITH SILVER INLAY CENTRAL TIBET, TSANG PROVINCE, 15TH CENTURY A Tibetan inscription around the foot of the base. Himalayan Art Resources item no. 4885 27 cm (10 5/8 in.) high Footnotes: A SILVER INLAID BRASS FIGURE OF SHADAKSHARI LOKESHVARA CENTRAL TIBET, TSANG PROVINCE, 15TH CENTURY 西藏 十五世紀 銅錯銀四臂觀音像 Provenance: With Claude de Marteau, Brussels, by 1970s Shadakshari Lokeshvara personifies an essential Buddhist mantra, om mani padme hum ('Hail to the Jewel in the Lotus'), whose six syllables represent the seeds of the six realms in the great cosmic wheel. This ubiquitous Sanskrit mantra is thought to contain the essence of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara as the Lord of Compassion. Here, the tightly drawn scarf ends terminating at the edge of the base naturally pull the viewer's attention towards Avalokiteshvara's benevolent gaze as he presses his foremost hands together in the gesture of salutation (anjali mudra). This sizable figure epitomizes the brassy, non-gilded style that was popular in the province of Tsang in Central Tibet. Shadakshari Lokeshvara's broad forehead, softened features, elegant eyes with silver-inlay and dipped upper lids, and dimpled mouth are quintessential to the Tsang style. The sculpture's densely packed lotus petals around the base, the flowing scarf draped over the shoulders, and the rippling of the lower garment around the shins indicate a 15th-century attribution for the piece as they take some inspiration from imperial bronzes from the Yongle period (1403-24), which were sent as gifts to prominent Tsang monasteries. Tsang sculptures of similar quality are preserved in the Jokhang, Lhasa (see von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, Vol. II, 2001, p. 1193, no. 323B; HAR 57377); the Museum der Kulturen, Basel (see von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, 1981, p. 479, no. 133F; HAR 3314761); and a Vajradhara image from the Claude de Marteau Collection, Part 1, sold at Bonhams, Paris, 14 June 2022, lot 38 (HAR 4840). The lengthy dedicatory inscription around the foot of the base makes an obscure reference to the sculpture's patron, 'Srang Gyur', who is yet to be identified. Bonhams would like to thank Jeff Watt and Karma Gelek for their assistance with its transcription and translation: རྒྱལ་བ་ཀུན་གྱི་ཡབ་གཅིག་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས། མཐོང་ཐོས་དྲན་རེག་འབྲེལ་ཚད་དོན་ལྡན་འདི། སྡང་མིག་རྒྱུད་པ་ཡོན་བདག་སྲང་སྐྱུར་གྱིས། ཕ་མས་སེམས་ཅན་འགྲོ་དྲུག་དོན་དུ་བཞེངས། ཐམས་ཅད་བདེ་བ་ཅན་དུ་སྐྱེ་བར་ཤོག། Sole father of all conquerors, By seeing, hearing, recollecting, and touching, benefitting all, The Dangmig lineage, patron Srang Gyur, Made this for the benefit of mother, father & all beings. May all be reborn in Sukhavati!' For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com