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Lot Essay
Tara, here in her form as the 'White Tara' bearing an open lotus blossom, is believed to be born from the eye of Avalokiteshvara. She represents compassion, transcendent knowledge and perfect purity.
Early Nepalese bronze figures of this size and importance are extremely rare. Apart from the Dr. Albert Shelton collection at the Newark Museum, acquired in 1911, it is one of the earliest documented pieces of important Himalayan sculpture in a private collection prior to World War I, when it was published by Alice Getty in her seminal work on The Gods of Northern Buddhism in 1914 as part of the Henry H. Getty Collection.
Compare to a gilt copper figure of Vasudhara in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in P. Pal, Art of Nepal, 1985, p. 101, with similar bejeweled tiara, armlets and pendants. The voluptuous modeling is closely related and would suggest a similar circa 11th century date.
Early Nepalese bronze figures of this size and importance are extremely rare. Apart from the Dr. Albert Shelton collection at the Newark Museum, acquired in 1911, it is one of the earliest documented pieces of important Himalayan sculpture in a private collection prior to World War I, when it was published by Alice Getty in her seminal work on The Gods of Northern Buddhism in 1914 as part of the Henry H. Getty Collection.
Compare to a gilt copper figure of Vasudhara in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in P. Pal, Art of Nepal, 1985, p. 101, with similar bejeweled tiara, armlets and pendants. The voluptuous modeling is closely related and would suggest a similar circa 11th century date.