208 - STANDING PADMAPANI BRONZE NEPAL 20TH CENTURY

STANDING PADMAPANI BRONZE NEPAL 20TH CENTURY Dimensions: Height 39 cm Wide 12 cm Depth 8 cm Weight: 3169 grams An elegantly proportioned standing bronze figure of Padmapani set upon a circular lotus pedestal. The gently inclined head wears a towering, intricately worked crown above long earrings. Necklaces, armlets and anklets ornament the slender body, while a narrow sash crosses the torso and falls in rippling folds beside the legs. Remnants of a golden surface alternate with darker rubbed areas and isolated green corrosion. Padmapani, the lotus-bearing form of Avalokiteshvara, personifies compassion in Mahayana Buddhist tradition. Nepalese metalworkers developed a particularly refined visual language for such figures, combining supple bodily movement with the jewelled splendour of a princely bodhisattva. The figure deliberately draws on much older Himalayan sculptural conventions.