A large bronze figure of Maitreya

KASHMIR, 10TH CENTURY

Details

A large bronze figure of Maitreya
Kashmir, 10th century
Standing on a lotus base over a stepped plinth, holding the water pot in his pendant left hand, clad in a short dhoti secured with a beaded belt, adorned with a foliate garland, sacred thread, and a beaded necklace, the face with aquiline nose and almond-shaped eyes, the hair pulled into a topknot and secured with a stupa finial, backed by a flaming nimbus and aureole, the base with an inscription
14½ in. (36.8 cm.) high

Provenance

Private Collection, Switzerland
Doris Wiener Gallery, New York, before 1970

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Lot Essay

The small inscription at the front of the base is in the Tibetan script, and reads "na.ga." As evinced by Ian Alsop, this is a reference to Nagaraja, a powerful "royal monk" who lived from 988 to 1026. The son of Ye she 'od, king of Guge in Western Tibet, Nagaraja amassed a sizeable number of Kashmiri and Western Tibetan Buddhist bronzes for his personal collection, stamping each one with his name as an indication of this religious endeavor. For another example with a Nagaraja inscription, see U. von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, 1981, p. 149, cat. no. 26G, also sold at Christie's, New York, 22 March 2011, lot 464; for a similar figure of Maitreya, see U. von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, 1981, p. 127, cat. no. 20E.

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