? AN IMPORTANT SILVER-INLAID BRONZE FIGURE OF BUDDHA SHAKYAMUNI, GANDHARA, 6TH-7TH CENTURY Expert’s note:
This rare and important bronze dates from the late Gandharan phase and displays unique characteristics that influenced and defined evolving contemporary styles in Swat Valley and Kashmir. The meticulously rendered garment folds, for example, are unlike those found in comparable Swat Valley and Kashmir bronzes, where they are either more stylized and parallel (see a Swat Valley figure dated 8th-9th century at Bonhams Hong Kong, 2 December 2021, lot 1007) or omitted altogether (see a Kashmir bronze dated 7th century at Christie’s New York, 19 March 2014, lot 1040). Another factor indicating a sightly earlier date for this bronze are the traces of wear from prolonged worship which occurred before its burial, as evidenced by the smoothed edges of the folds on the deity’s robe, some of which now present with extensive encrustations.
Seated in dhyanasana on a tiered plinth supported by a pair of lions and raised on a double-lotus base, his right hand raised in abhaya mudra and the left lowered in varada mudra, wearing a loose-fitting sanghati falling from his shoulders in precisely rendered folds. The serene face with silver-inlaid almond-shaped eyes, neatly incised pupils, and full lips forming a subtle smile, flanked by long pendulous earlobes, the hair arranged in tight curls over the ushnisha.
Provenance: A noted private collection. German trade, acquired from the above. Zacke, Vienna, 17 October 2024, lot 175. The private collection of Michael Phillips, acquired from the above. Michael Phillips (born 1943) is an Academy Award-winning film producer. Born in Brooklyn, New York, his parents were Lawrence and Shirley Phillips, noted New York dealers in Asian fine arts, selling to the Met, the LACMA, the Chicago Art Institute, and the British Museum among others. Michael Phillips is a collector of Asian art himself, particularly Indian, Southeast Asian, and Himalayan sculpture. His most important films include The Sting (winning the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1973), Taxi Driver (winning the Palme d’Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival), and Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age. Extensive wear, partly from centuries of worship within the culture, signs of weathering and erosion, repairs and restorations, encrustations, nicks, losses, scratches, casting flaws. The bronze with a rich, naturally grown, dark patina.
Weight: 647.4 g
Dimensions: Height 14.3 cm
This magnificent figure of Buddha belongs to a rare group of bronze figure cast in the regions of ancient Gandhara and the Swat Valley in the fifth through seventh centuries. The solidly cast bronze is a masterpiece of the Buddha image, illustrating the exquisite marriage of the contemporary Gupta style with the earlier influences of Hellenistic Gandhara.
During the Kushan period, Gandhara was a fervent center of Buddhism, with thousands of monasteries sprawled across the wide riverine plains and tucked away in the more remote valleys north of the Kabul River. The demand for images of the Buddha was great and the vast quantity of works in schist and stucco, and to a lesser degree terracotta and bronze, illustrates the rich artistic tradition of the region. The decline of the Kushans, however, precipitated the invasion of the Huns in the middle of the fifth century, and the peace and splendor of Gandhara was destroyed. Those that survived sought refuge in the remote valleys of Swat and the Hindu Kush, where Buddhism quietly endured until the invasion of Muslim forces in the tenth and eleventh centuries.
During the fifth through seventh centuries, the production of large Buddhist works in stone and stucco declined, while the creation of smaller scale images in bronze reached a zenith. This phenomenon must be explained in part by the new conditions of Buddhist worship during this time: except for certain sites such as Bamiyan, the large and wealthy monasteries of the previous era had been replaced by smaller, migratory groups of worshipers. The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, who traveled to India in the first half of the seventh century, described the situation in Swat as follows: “There had formerly been 1400 monasteries but many of these were now in ruins, and once there had been 18,000 [Buddhist] Brethren but these had gradually decreased until only a few remained” (see Ulrich von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, 1981, p. 72).
Pushed to the margins of society, the Buddhist adherents could no longer afford to commission large and permanently installed works. Images in stucco were extremely fragile, while works in schist were too heavy to transport. Bronze, on the other hand, was durable, and when scaled down to a small size and cast in several parts, could be bundled up and carried from place to place. Despite the reduced size, the present work would no doubt have been an expensive and precious object of veneration.
Literature comparison:
Compare a related Gandharan bronze finial in the form of the enthroned Buddha, with similar garment folds and dark patina, 11.1 cm high, dated 4th-5th century, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 2015.782.1.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 22 March 2011, lot 229
Price: USD 47,500 or approx. EUR 61,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A bronze figure of the seated Buddha, Gandhara, 6th century
Expert remark: Compare the related subject, modeling, and manner of casting with similar pose, expression, and patina. Note the size (16.5 cm).
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