Footnotes

西藏 十五/十六世紀 銅鎏金大日如來像

Likely representing the crowned Buddha, this ornamented appearance of the great chakravartin, or universal ruler, unites spiritual and worldly status as the archetype of Buddhist kingship. All the inherent features of the Buddha representing his enlightened form with raised cranial protuberance, elongated earlobes, lotus posture, and gentle mudra signifying the moment of his awakening, evoke an air of quiet simplicity. The addition of the five-part crown, featuring a triple stacked central pendant flanked by foliate supports shouldering gems and a looped sash with streaming ends, is a majestic display of a reigning monarch.

Recent scholarship suggests that the origin of the crowned Buddha arose within Buddhist communities to confront the growing political and religious power held by Hindus in India, beginning in the first millennium but especially evident in the late fifth century. Emphasizing the Buddha's spiritual authority allowed Buddhists to assert themselves within a growing context of favoritism towards the Hindu pantheon of deities (Bautze-Picron, The Bejewelled Buddha from India to Burma, 2010). This concept of the Dharma King, unifying the monarchic and religious sovereign, developed into an iconographic tradition beginning in eastern India, as depicted in a crowned Buddha from Bihar in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1993.311a, b), which was later favored as a prototype by Newari ateliers. The tapered waist hugged by a curved chevron skirt and the broadened shoulders echo those seen in Bihar, while the delicate depiction of the face, the double beaded hemline of the robe, the fishtail pleats over the left shoulder, and cockle shell folds over the base bear the natural elegance of Newari design. See a similarly modeled example from the Claude de Marteau Collection, sold at Bonhams, Paris, 4 October 2022, lot 24 and another gilt-bronze in the Museé Guimet (HAR 85959).

Provenance:
Private Paris Collection