Footnotes

錯銀錯紅銅釋迦牟尼銅像
印度東北部 帕拉時期 九世紀

With balanced and harmonious proportions, Buddha sits alert and upright, his broad shoulders tapering down to a narrow, supple waist. A diaphanous robe is draped over the left shoulder, its sheerness suggested by a well-delineated bellybutton above the Buddha's belted lower garment. His robe gathers in subtle folds at the ankles, with a splay of fabric fanning onto the base. His fingers and toes are finely modeled with enhanced detail and naturalism. The sculpture epitomizes the understated elegance of earlier and rarer Pala sculpture produced before the 10th century.

This delightful, early bronze figure of Buddha was produced in the region of Northeastern India, where Buddha lived and taught. It is of a 9th-century style that could be attributed to famous Buddhist pilgrimage sites and international centers for education, such as Nalanda and Kurkihar monasteries. Yet, in contrast to the many bronzes in Indian museums excavated from those sites, the present bronze survives with a buttery, unexcavated patina and rubbed details that would indicate it was carried to Tibet during the Chidar, whereafter it sustained its wear from continued ablutions and propitiation. The Chidar was a period between the 10th and 12th centuries, known as Tibet's 'apprenticeship' of Indian Buddhism. Perceived to be inherently purer and more potent arising from Buddhism's heartland, Buddhist texts and icons from India where highly prized even in antiquity.

Like several bronzes found at Nalanda monastery, the sculpture depicts the Buddha seated above a stepped, footed plinth and a lotus throne with a beaded rim and broad petals with pointed tips staggered between the top and bottom layers. Similarities are found on early- to mid-9th-century examples of Avalokiteshvara and Tara from Nalanda published in Roy, Eastern Indian Bronzes, New Delhi, 1986, nos.110a & 124. However, the present example's slightly more slender waist and face, and the use of silver and copper inlay to enliven the eyes and lips, are stylistic characteristics more commonly associated with bronzes from Kurkihar. Compare, for example, a bronze of Ratnasambhava from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection sold at Christie's, New York, 17 March 2015, lot 12. Also see a related Buddha sold at Koller, Zurich, 13 June 2017, lot 115.

Provenance
Ex-Private Collection, Exeter, UK, 1960s-1980s