SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA STATUETTE IN BRASS WITH SILVER... Lot 123

SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA STATUETTE IN BRASS WITH SILVER AND COPPER INLAY KASHMIR, VII CENTURY Himalayan Art Resources item no. 1452 12.7 cm (5 in.) high Footnotes: A SILVER AND COPPER INLAID BRASS FIGURE OF SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA KASHMIR, 8TH CENTURY 克什米爾 八世紀 錯銀錯紅銅釋迦牟尼銅像 This intimate casting of the historical Buddha depicts him with his hands in the gesture of 'Turning the Wheel of the Dharma'. This mudra, in addition to his rounded features and the even ripples of his robe accentuating his athletic physique, are typical of images that were produced in Kashmir around the 7th to 9th centuries. See similarly dated examples in von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, Vol. I, 2001, pp. 94-5 & 107-9, nos. 15A-C & 19A-C. Here, the craggy, mountain platform in which Shakyamuni sits upon with a lone lion resting below is a detail shared by a Vajrapani image in the Cleveland Museum of Art (1971.14) and a crowned Buddha image published in ibid, p. 117, nos. 23E-F. Additionally, a teaching Buddha dated to 712 and preserved in the Dangkhar monastery in Spiti shares the same unusual adornment of irregularly spaced copper inlays on the platform (see Laurant, 'lha bla ma Zhi ba 'od's Eighth Century Bronze from Gilgit', in Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines 26, 2013, pp. 211-2, figs. 1-4). Also compare with an example from the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, 1981, p. 117, no. 15E; M.69.13.5). The celebrated enthroned Buddha in the Norton Simon Foundation, bearing a dated inscription corresponding to 694, shares a similar inlaid cushion and treatment of the robe to the present lot (F.1972.48.2.S; ibid, pp. 98 & 118, no. 16A). Provenance: Private French Collection, acquired 1980s For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com