A SILVER- AND COPPER-INLAID BRONZE FIGURE OF A BODHISATTVA
A SILVER- AND COPPER-INLAID BRONZE FIGURE OF A BODHISATTVA
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A SILVER- AND COPPER-INLAID BRONZE FIGURE OF A BODHISATTVA

SWAT VALLEY OR KASHMIR, 9TH-10TH CENTURY

Details
A SILVER- AND COPPER-INLAID BRONZE FIGURE OF A BODHISATTVA
SWAT VALLEY OR KASHMIR, 9TH-10TH CENTURY
Seated in dhyanasana on a throne supported by lions over a lotus base, holding a waterpot in the lower proper left hand, with a lotus blossoming at the proper left shoulder, the other hands spread around him in various mudras, the face with copper-inlaid lips and silver-inlaid eyes surmounted by an ornate crown
5 ½ in. (14 cm.) high
Provenance
Spink and Son, Ltd., London, 6 June 1980.
The James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, Chicago.
Literature
P. Pal, A Collecting Odyssey: Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian Art from the James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, Chicago, 1997, p. 136, cat. no. 176.
Exhibited
The Art Institute of Chicago, “A Collecting Odyssey: Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian Art from the James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection,” 2 August-26 October 1997, cat. no. 176.

Lot Essay


Traces of blue polychromy at the hair and cold gold at the face and neck indicate that this unidentified bodhisattva was later absorbed into a Tibetan collection. It was also later incised with the Tibetan numeral “3” at the back of the throne, indicating the position of the bronze within a larger set.

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