Footnotes

尼泊爾 約十七世紀 銅鎏金錘揲神祇飾板

Newari artists of the Kathmandu Valley were esteemed for their metal working techniques. Fashioned from hammering copper sheets of metal into decorative designs, repoussé was often the technique used to ornament architectural facades in Nepal. Typically large in scale, these ornamental features dense in detail, would have added a rich gilt surface to architecture that was equally elaborate in design.

Featured here in this repoussé deity, is a mysterious form related to Manjushri, the god of Wisdom, insinuated from the sword raised over his head. With seven heads and twelve arms, his hands placed in the mudra associated with teaching, and the sword, lotus, arrow and bow, suggest parallels to Manjurava, an esoteric form of the Wisdom deity. The broad foreheads, floral earrings, collar necklace, and flaming aureoles speak both to the technical acumen of the Newari artisans and to the artistic proficiency of their designs in the 17th and 18th centuries. Compare to other repoussé illustrated in von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, pp. 390-1, no. 107B-D. Also compare it with a smaller cast and repoussé figure of Manjuvajra sold at Bonhams, New York, 16 March 2021, lot 317.

Published:
Pratapaditya Pal, A Collecting Odyssey: Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian Art: from the James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, Chicago, 1997, pp. 231 & 342, no. 306.

Exhibited:
On Loan to the Art Institute of Chicago, by repute

Provenance:
Purchased from Shawn Kassimi, New York, circa 2007
Alsdorf Collection
Private California Collection