KASHMIR OR WESTERN TIBET, 10TH-11TH CENTURY

The present bronze depicts the bodhisattva and future buddha, Maitreya, standing on a lotus base over a low throne supported by lions and a dwarf-like figure. He holds a mala (rosary) in his raised right hand and a kundika (water vessel) in his left, the latter the identifying iconographic attribute of Maitreya. He is garbed in a tight-fitting robe draped over the left shoulder with ornately incised hems across the chest, and is adorned with a garland slung from his shoulders and hanging across his shins, a beaded necklace, and large, circular earrings. The crown is of an early type, with a tall, triangular lotus petal at center, which holds back the flowing locks of his hair.
Stylistic analysis indicates this work likely derived from the regions of Western Tibet, possibly from the ancient Kingdom of Guge, a small kingdom which was founded by King Yeshe-Ö and flourished from the tenth through twelfth centuries. Its artistic tradition was heavily influenced by Kashmiri sculptural and painting styles due to the presence of Kashmiri teachers and artisans active in the area during the period of the second dissemination of Buddhism in Tibet (c. 950-1200 CE). The leaded-brass alloy, the manner of modeling the rounded face with long, thin eyes, the delineated flesh of the belly, and the conjoined nimbus and aureole are all reminiscent of Kashmiri prototypes that began appearing in Tibet at the turn of the eleventh century. The Kashmiri idiom for depicting the nimbus and aureole is typically to incise flames into a rounded edge, while the present work depicts the flames in a manner similar to effervescent floral sprigs; compare the treatment of the aureole and the base with a bronze figure of Padmapani Lokeshvara, probably from the same atelier, originally in the Pan-Asian Collection and now in the collection of the Rubin Museum of Art, sold at Sotheby's New York, 27 March 1991, lot 91 and illustrated on Himalayan Art Resources, item no. 65288.