Footnotes

不空成就佛銅像
西藏 十五世紀

Very finely cast, Amoghasiddhi Buddha is adorned with a meticulous rendering of jewels and luxurious silk garments, seated above a throne of crisp lotus petals that continue almost seamlessly in the round. These stylistic features make clear homage to imperial Yongle Buddhist bronzes that started to arrive in Tibet by the second decade of the 15th century. Included among diplomatic gifts to major monastic enclaves in Central Tibet, flawlessly cast Yongle bronzes inspired emulation among Tibetan artists, often working in a local preference for non-gilded brass, for which the present lot is a consummate example.

Note the similarity between the present lot and two Yongle bronzes of Amoghasiddhi published in von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, p.517, no.144C, and von Schroeder, Buddhist Bronzes in Tibet, Vol.II, Hong Kong, 2003, pp.1254-5, no.345E. Also compare a Yongle Buddha sold at Bonhams, Hong Kong, 29 November 2016, lot 124.

Not intended as outright copies, these Tibetan emulations typically exhibit local adaptations of some features, such as the face of this example which has a more Tibetan, tapered outline than a Yongle bronze. And, although they are very accomplished in this example, Tibetan emulations usually exaggerate or simplify the band of slender lotus petals that radiate around the base. Other examples of Tibetan emulations that show similar adaption include a Syamatara published in von Schroeder, op. cit., 1981, p.477, no.132D; a 16th-century (sic) Vajradhara sold at Sotheby's, New York, 22 March 2018, lot 1045, and a Tara sold at Sotheby's, London, 14 June 1988, lot 63.

The bronze's inscription names its chief Tibetan patron and reads:
བཅོན་ལྡན་དོན་ཡོད་གྲུབ་པའི་སྐུ།
བཞེངས་པའི་བསོད་ནམས་གང་ཡོང་ངེས།
མགོན་པོ་མཚོ་རྒྱལ་འཁོར་བཅས་ལ།
མཆོག་དང་མཐུན་མོང་དངོས་གྲུབ་སྩོལ།

'By creating an image of bhagavan Amoghasiddhi,
Through whatever merit is surely acquired,
To Gonpo Tsogyal together with retinue,
Bestow the supreme and common attainments. Mangalam!'

Bonhams is grateful to Jeff Watt of Himalayan Art Resources for his translation of the inscription.

Provenance
Private Collection, Bloomington, Indiana, by 1995