Renaud Montméat 2018 Art D’ Asie India, Himalayas & Southeast Asia Art D’Asie •
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renaud montméat 2018 art d’ asie india, himalayas & southeast asia art d’asie • 36, rue étienne marcel 75002 paris + 33617612160 [email protected] montmeat-asianart.com montméat renaud renaud montméat art d’ asie ART FAIR STAND18D JANUARY 27TH - FEBRUARY 4TH 2018 36, rue étienne marcel 75002 paris +33617612160 [email protected] montmeat-asianart.com SAMBHANDAR Bronze Height: 39 cm 13th century, Chola period Tamil Nadu, India Provenance: Private collection, U.S.A. Art Loss Register Certificate, Reference: S00065479. • Analysis Certificate by Scanning Electron Microscopy, Ciram, France • Condition Report by Neil F. Perry Ltd, London, March 2015. Sambhandar is one of the most important among the group of sixty-three Saivite saints known as the Nayanars. He lived in the 7th He wears a girdle of bells, necklaces, century, and was responsible for the a sacred thread, armbands, bracelets first three books of the Devaram and finger rings. hymns. His hair dress, earrings, conical Sambhandar is depicted as a small tiara and elongated eyes allude to child dancing with joy, his right the late Chola style and evidence hand in vismayabasta, his index an exceptional quality of bronze finger pointing to the sky. casting that required no additional He balances on his right leg and carving. The beautiful greenish raises his left while extending his natural patina complements this left arm in dandahasta. fine example of Chola art. Similar examples can be seen in: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA. https://collections.lacma.org/node/231330 Jan Van Alphen, Cast For Eternity, Bronze Masterworks from India and the Himalayas in Belgian and Dutch Collections, 2005, Ethnographic Museum, Antwerp, p.58 Fig. 8. 4 5 DORJE LEGPA Gilded bronze Height: 16,5 cm 18th century China Seating majestically upon a snow degenerate beings while he lifts the Entirely fire gilded, this statue lion is the Dharma protector heart of a pernicious demon to his displays a number of details Dorje Legpa (Tib. rdo rje legs pa, mouth. illustrating the visualisation Skt. vajrasaddhu). He is dressed with a blue robe and instructions such as the wrathful As described in the Nyingma a red gown floating around him. ornaments of the snake necklace, liturgy 1, he is “of dark red On his head is the red travelling the garland of human heads complexion, with one face and hat (Tib. thang zhu) topped with threaded on an intestine and the two hands. a half vajra and ornate with red human skin as a belt. Many parts His mouth gaping in fury bares silk ribbons. He wears felt boots at are coloured with pigment: the his sharp teeth, his tongue moving his feet. Sharply dressed with his lion’s mane, tail and hairs in dark like a red lightning, and exhaling full beautiful garment he displays blue, the eyes and mouth in red poisonous vapours. a terrifying unbearable ferocious and its teeth in white. The deity’s His three bulging eyes injected expression”. curly locks of hair, eyebrows and with blood stare with hatred. His As one of the many deities moustache are painted in orange. face is wrinkled in hanger and subdued by Padmasambhava when Despite the missing hat and vajra his eyebrows and facial hair are he came to Tibet, Dorje Legpa is who were cast separately, the statue blazing like fire. With the vajra quite famous among the Nyingma produces a strong impression of made of meteoric iron in his right school, but can also be found in balance, power and liveliness. hand he aims at the heads of the the schools of the new translation2. Étienne Bock 1. Dudjom Rinpoché, Gsung ‘bum, 1999, vol.17, p.139 2. René de Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and demons of Tibet, 1996, chapter X, p.154-159 6 7 THE BUDDHA SAKYAMUNI SURROUNDED BY SCENES OF HIS LIFE Pyrophyllite stone Height: 15 cm 11th- 12th centuries Northeastern India Provenance: Old Japanese collection Published: John Siudmak, Indian, Himalayan Sculpture, 2013, p.16 Cat.8 This refined stone plaque depicts Around the main central figure emblematic moments from the are arrayed two sets of scenes life of the historical Buddha already described with precision Shakyamuni. The central figure by Suidmak and starting from represents the Buddha-to-be with the level of his right knee upward. his right hand stretched, touching The outer scenes are the eight the ground in bhumisparsamudra, major events from his life (Skt. “the taking of the Earth as astamahapratiharya): witness” of his awakening under 1. his birth in Lumbini, 2. the the Bodhi tree, recognizable to its central scene of his awakening, characteristic leaves. 3. his first turning of the Dharma He is flanked by two standing wheel in Sarnath, 4. his descent Buddha-like attendants with their from Trayastrimsa heaven. Then hands joined in salutation and two from his left knee upward: pairs of small celestial beings at the 5. taming the mad elephant level of his head and a couple of Nalagiri, 6. performing miracles in musicians in the upper corners. Sravasti, 7. receiving honey from a The double lotus seat he dwells on monkey at Vaisali, and at the top of is supported by two wavy stemlike the stone, 8. his mahaparinirvana motifs and two crowned characters in Kusinagara 1. in acrobatic position. The whole Displayed on the inside are six structure is carried by three facing scenes illustrating moments elephants, a pair of lions and a pair following the Buddha’s awakening. of horses. 1. A different order of the eight great deeds is given in: Thomas E. Donaldson, Iconography of the Buddhist Sculpture of Orissa, 2001, Abhinav Publications, p.94 8 9 SHIVA AND PARVATI Grey sandstone Height: 35 cm 11th-12th centuries Northwestern India Provenance: 1990’s-2017 French collection Art Loss Register Certificate: S00131531 Shiva and Parvati are holding hands, walking and caught in the movement like on a photograph when the god turns towards his consort. Both are richly adorned with necklaces, bracelets, tiara and earrings. This thin stone with fine compact grain, possibly sandstone, allows the artist to carve refined details. This work of art is typical from Northwestern India, probably Rajasthan. Resembling scene can be seen in: Pratapaditya Pal, Art from the Indian Subcontinent, The Norton Simon Art Foundation, p.115 Cat. 75 10 11 SUKHASANA SHIVA Bronze Height: 35 cm 14th-15th centuries Southern India 12 13 SUKHASANA SHIVA Bronze Height: 35,5 cm 14th-15th centuries Southern India Provenance: 2012-2017 Italian collection 2004-2012 French collection sept. 2004 Sotheby’s NY, lot n°35 Art Loss Register Certificate S00130690 Seated in the rajalilasana posture Once forming part of a more is the god Shiva, with one leg complex composition called extended down over the lotus Somaskandamurti, Shiva was throne, while the other rests assisted by his consort, the comfortably on its top. Richly goddess Parvati who was sitting adorned with many necklaces and next to him with their infant son bracelets, he wears a dhoti held Skanda standing between them. by a belt with a Kirtimukha as Somaskandamurti is one of the a buckle. His hair is piled into a most popular religious images in high jatamukuta and an urna, or South India. third eye, is vertically placed in the middle of his brow. A yajnopavita, With impressive majesty and the sacred thread, passes crosses his beauty, this image of Shiva reflects torso. the high artistic level of bronze The four-armed Shiva holds a casting in South India. battle-axe and a deer in his upper hands. His lower right hand is raised in abhayamudra (the gesture that allays fear). 14 HEAD OF A YOGI Gilded copper repoussé Height: 26 cm Circa 17th century Tibet This vigorous semi-wrathful hairs. The presence of a turquoise human face conveys all the inlaid between his eyebrows is a strength and determination of common feature visible on other the yoga practitioners. It perfectly comparable works of art 1. corresponds to the Tibetan Two holes are visible on his neck expression zhi ma khro, meaning two insert the rivet and fix the “partly peaceful and partly head to the body of the statue wrathful” often used to describe and some other are also visible on Padmasambhava’s expression. the hair, implying the presence of ornaments. The intensive look of his elongated almond eyes reinforced by his The repoussé technique, though frown is counter balanced by the not as widespread as the lost wax gentle smile on his lips. cast technique, is nevertheless The stretched earlobes could well represented in the Tibetan indicate either a yogi or a celestial and Himalayan art. Among the being such as a daka, dakini or outstanding examples are the anthropomorphic deity. Lamdre masters from Drathang The gender of the character cannot monastery now preserved in be determined with certainty since Mindrölling 2. he has long hair tied into a topknot and no apparent marks of facial Étienne Bock 1. Similar examples can be seen in: Tsang Nyön Heruka, 16th century, Pritzker collection https://www.himalayanart.org/items/58303 2. Ulrich von Schroeder, Buddhist sculpture in Tibet, 2001, Visual Dharma Publications, Vol. 2, p.972-979 16 17 BUDDHA MARAVIJAYA Bronze Height: 55,5 cm Circa 16th century Lan Na Kingdom, Thailand Provenance: Ancient French collection, Bourgogne Art Loss Register Certificate: S00130692 Seated in virasana, the future The elongated earlobes caused Buddha touches the earth with by wearing heavy earrings in his his right hand, stretched in youth, reflects his royal origins. bhumisparsamudra. Most common attitude of the Awakened One in From a stylistic perspective, Thailand, this episode relates the the band at the hairline1 and defeat of Mara.