NEPAL, 16TH CENTURY

This very elegantly and intricately worked repousse bronze is characteristic for the Nepali representation of Indra, seated in the graceful pose of 'Royal Ease' with his principal attribute of the thunderbolt supported by a lotus flower and with the horizontal 'third eye' on the forehead. He wears a crescent shaped crown that is specific to Nepal. This elegant pose was adopted in Chinese Song sculpture in depictions of Guanyin (Avalokiteshvara); in the Nepalese context it must rank as among the most iconic. His right hand hangs loose in lilahasta, denoting pleasure, play, or indulgence.
Indra is the lord of the gods who plays an important part in the legends, life and art of Nepal, and the best that the Newari sculptor had to give often went into the making of images of this deity; compare to the earlier cast bronze example at the Norton Simon Museum, in P. Pal, Asian Art at the Norton Simon Museum, vol. 2, 2003, pp. 84-85, cat. no. 52; and to a smaller example with different hand gesture from the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, in P. Pal, Art of Nepal, 1985, cat. no. S42, p. 119.