A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF JAMBHALATIBET, 13TH/14TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no.68453
21.6 cm (8 1/2 in.) high注脚Published
David Weldon and Jane Casey Singer, The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, London, 1999, pp.102-3, pl.18.
Franco Ricca, Arte Buddhista Tibetana: Dei e Demoni dell'Himalaya, Turin, 2004, fig. IV.32.

Exhibited
The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 6 October – 30 December 1999.
Arte Buddhista Tibetana: Dei e Demoni dell'Himalaya, Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin, 18 June - 19 September 2004.
Casting the Divine: Sculptures of the Nyingjei Lam Collection, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2 March 2012 – 11 February 2013.

Provenance
The Nyingjei Lam Collection
On loan to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1996-2005
On loan to the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2005-2019

Primarily known as the God of Wealth, Jambhala is one of the most popularly worshipped deities in Tibetan Buddhism, propitiated in order to avoid the mundane distractions of ensuring sustenance so that practitioners can focus on their spiritual training. Here, a skilled craftsman has represented the deity in his full, corpulent glory, symbolic of the abundance Jambhala is able to grant. Jambhala offers a bijapuraka fruit with his outstretched right hand, while his left massages the neck of a magical mongoose, prompting it to disgorge three strands of jewels from its plump belly. The deity rests his pendent right foot comfortably on the mouths of not one, but three money pots, while clad in resplendent jewelry indicative of the wealth they store. With these delightful details, the master hand has produced a vision of Jambhala with wide-opened eyes and a faint smile—appearing alert and engaged—a reminder of the deity's imminent presence to the mortal realm.
 
This bronze's sculptor was clearly well-versed in idioms of an earlier artistic tradition from Northeastern India under the Pala Empire (8th-12th centuries). Various elements reflect Indian prototypes, including the tall chignon, the crown's projecting side ribbons, the jewelry design, and the base's beaded rims. A Pala stone stele of Jambhala in the Dallas Museum of Art (1995.78) clearly demonstrates the artist's familiarity. The present lot shares many stylistic details, such as the well-padded and defined hands, the large hoop earrings, and the round wealth pots under the right foot.

Meanwhile, other aspects betray Tibetan characteristics, such as the structural bars left interlacing the sculpture's tall crown leaves, and its base's plump and flattened lotus petals, both frequented throughout early Tibetan bronzes of the 13th and 14th centuries. This combination of stylistic elements exemplifies Tibetan artist's close apprenticeship of Pala art during and shortly after the Second Transmission of Buddhism from India to Tibet, known as the Chidar (late 10th-12th centuries).
 
Of almost identical size, a closely related sculpture of Jambhala is held in the Norton Simon Museum (M.1975.14.06.S). Like the present sculpture, it shows the deity wearing a prominent garland of blue lotuses secured by a jeweled clasp in his lap and holding a bijapuraka fruit of similar three-lobed design, as if partially peeled. The outstretched neck of the mongoose is also treated similarly. However, as one of the best iterations of Jambhala in this early Tibetan style—and therefore, of its scale, one of the best bronzes of any subject in this style—the current lot compares favourably to the Norton Simon example, displaying more movement and naturalism, and more refined detail.


財神銅像
西藏，十三或十四世紀
喜馬拉雅藝術資源網68453號
高21.6釐米（8 1/2 英吋）

2,400,000-2,800,000港幣

著錄
David Weldon與Jane Casey Singer，《The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet：Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection》，倫敦，1999年，頁102-3，圖18。
Franco Ricca，《Arte Buddhista Tibetana：Dei e Demoni dell'Himalaya》，都靈，2004年，圖IV.32。

展覽
「The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet：Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection」，阿什莫林博物館，牛津，1999年10月6日至12月30日。
「Arte Buddhista Tibetana：Dei e Demoni dell'Himalaya」，布里凱拉西奧宮，都靈，2004年6月18日至9月19日。
「Casting the Divine：Sculptures of the Nyingjei Lam Collection」，魯賓藝術博物館，紐約，2012年3月2日至2013年2月11日。

來源
菩薩道收藏
借展於阿什莫林博物館，牛津，1996年至2005年
借展於魯賓藝術博物館，紐約，2005年至2019年

作為財富之神的藏巴拉無疑是藏傳佛教中最廣受敬拜的神袛之一。信徒們虔誠地供奉藏巴拉，祈求他們無需為衣食生計碌碌勞苦，因而得以潛心佛道。遵循著這種信仰，一位技藝出眾的匠師製作了此尊極盡富麗之氣的銅像，其華貴與福態正象徵藏巴拉能夠賜予無盡財富之意。藏巴拉右手前伸，送出如意果，左手捏住一隻吐寶鼠的脖子，令它從渾圓的腹中吐出三串珠寶。其豐腴的右足閒適地搭在三個珠光寶氣的錢罐上，暗示其中所藏不菲。造像通體華美，種種細節皆令觀者心生歡喜。與此同時，藏巴拉卻又雙目圓睜，隱隱含笑，神態警醒，流露出其迫近人間的現世情感。

自風格而言，匠師無疑深諳印度東北部帕拉王朝（公元八至十二世紀）藝術傳統，藏巴拉多處細節皆可印證此種印度特徵，如高高聳起的髮髻、寶冠旁的髮帶、珠寶之造型以及蓮花座之連珠紋等等。可借達拉斯藝術博物館所藏一件帕拉時期財神石碑（編號 1995.78）一觀，財神渾圓的手部、大圓環式耳飾以及右足下圓鼓鼓的錢袋皆與本拍品十分相似。

儘管如此，本銅像同時呈現鮮明的西藏藝術風格，如寶冠上連接各葉的金屬固件以及蓮花座上輪廓圓潤又相對扁平的花瓣，皆為十三與十四世紀西藏地區常見的銅像特徵。印度與西藏造像風格同時呈現於一尊佛像，二者的交相輝映正反映出西藏藝術家於佛教第二次由印度傳入西藏期間的後弘期（十世紀晚期至十二世紀）時代對帕拉藝術的深入研習。

諾頓西蒙博物館中現藏一財神銅像（編號M.1975.14.06.S），其形制與此例幾乎一致。兩尊銅像均佩戴造型優美的藍蓮花環，下方繫以珠寶扣，二者所手持如意果亦呈現半剝開一般的三瓣狀，甚至吐寶鼠長長伸出的脖子亦十分相似。然而，本拍品為西藏早期風格中最上乘的藏巴拉造像之一，就其體量而言也屬各題材西藏早期造像的最頂級之列，其相較諾頓西蒙博物館藏例更具自然動感與優美細節。