A COPPER- AND SILVER-INLAID BRONZE FIGURE OF PADMAPANI LOKESHVARA
A COPPER- AND SILVER-INLAID BRONZE FIGURE OF PADMAPANI LOKESHVARA
A COPPER- AND SILVER-INLAID BRONZE FIGURE OF PADMAPANI LOKESHVARA
A COPPER- AND SILVER-INLAID BRONZE FIGURE OF PADMAPANI LOKESHVARA
3 More
THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE WEST COAST COLLECTOR
A COPPER- AND SILVER-INLAID BRONZE FIGURE OF PADMAPANI LOKESHVARA

SWAT VALLEY, 8TH-9TH CENTURY

Details
A COPPER- AND SILVER-INLAID BRONZE FIGURE OF PADMAPANI LOKESHVARA
SWAT VALLEY, 8TH-9TH CENTURY
4 7/8 in. (12.4 cm.) high
Provenance
Collection of James and Marilynn Alsdorf, Chicago, by 1981.
Sotheby’s New York, 23 March 2000, lot 21.
Literature
U. von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, pp. 84-85, cat. no. 6B.
P. Pal, A Collecting Odyssey: Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art from the James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, Chicago, 1997, pp. 132, 309-10, cat. no. 169.
Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 24606.

Lot Essay


This widely published figure of Padmapani Lokeshvara displays classic stylistic elements from Swat Valley, including the almond-shaped eyes with delicate silver inlay, the pronounced modeling of the muscles around the navel with powerful upper torso, and the accentuated roundness of the beaded jewelry. A diminutive figure of Amitabha is visible on the crown of the head, further confirming the identity of the bodhisattva. The back of the lotus base bears an inscription.
Prototypes of the unusual double-lotus throne with overlapping petals in the Swat Valley can be seen as early as the seventh century, including a bronze figure of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. no. 2012.247, as well as a contemporaneous Swat bronze figure of Avalokiteshvara offered at Bonhams Hong Kong, 2 October 2018, lot 14.
Compare the distinctive physiognomy, the right hand raised in varada mudra and the tiered lotus base of the current work with further contemporaneous bronzes depicting bodhisattvas, illustrated by U. von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, pp. 84-85, cat. nos. 6A, 6C—6E.

More from Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Works of Art

View All
View All