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Lot Essay
Nepal’s crucial geographic location in the Himalayas has meant that it has always served as a point of contact between the cultures of India to the south and Tibet and China to the north. The high mountains that surround the principal population center, the Kathmandu Valley, have mostly protected the region from foreign intervention and enabled the development of rich religious traditions. Both Buddhism and Hinduism are practiced side by side with a harmony between its practitioners rarely found in other communities. While most members of the Newari artisan caste practiced Vajrayana Buddhism, they nonetheless crafted images for both Hindu and Buddhist patrons, and there is thus a syncretic style in the sculpture of Nepal, regardless of the represented deity.
Newari craftsmen were amongst the finest metalworkers in all of the Himalayas and were sought out and commissioned by other countries with a demand for bronze images. The renown of the Nepalese bronze workers was based in part on their mastery of fire gilding, whereby red hot gold is fused with mercury and applied to the image, creating a vibrant quality in the gilding. Nepalese sculptors also worked predominantly with copper, rather than brass or bronze; while less durable than those metals, the softness of the copper allowed for a sense of vitality to be imbued into the cast figures.
The present four-armed, elephant-headed Ganesha is an elegant and charming example of a Brahmanical sculpture from the region. Seated in a posture of royal ease (maharajalilasana), his main left-hand rests on his thigh, holding a bowl of globular sweetmeats (modaka). His main right-hand rests on his raised right leg, holding his broken tusk. His prehensile trunk reaches across the serpent that forms the sacred thread to pick up a modaka. With heavy-lidded eyes and happy disposition, Ganesha sits in ease with his upper arms raised, the drapery, head and ear ornaments, and the peak of his diadem all lending a sense of lightness and movement to this seated figure. His hair is piled up in jatamukuta with loose strands flowing down gracefully over his shoulder. He wears snake wristlets and armlets that are complimented by snake anklets around his feet. The undulating flesh of this perfectly proportioned Ganesha is tender, with each element beautifully melting into the other, making it an inviting and serene image of the elephant god.
Compare the present figure with a very similar example sold at Christie’s New York, 20 March 2012, lot 91; while the legs are held in lalitasana in contrast to the maharajalilasana of the present work, the overall modeling of the figure and the treatment of the face and diadem are particularly similar.
Newari craftsmen were amongst the finest metalworkers in all of the Himalayas and were sought out and commissioned by other countries with a demand for bronze images. The renown of the Nepalese bronze workers was based in part on their mastery of fire gilding, whereby red hot gold is fused with mercury and applied to the image, creating a vibrant quality in the gilding. Nepalese sculptors also worked predominantly with copper, rather than brass or bronze; while less durable than those metals, the softness of the copper allowed for a sense of vitality to be imbued into the cast figures.
The present four-armed, elephant-headed Ganesha is an elegant and charming example of a Brahmanical sculpture from the region. Seated in a posture of royal ease (maharajalilasana), his main left-hand rests on his thigh, holding a bowl of globular sweetmeats (modaka). His main right-hand rests on his raised right leg, holding his broken tusk. His prehensile trunk reaches across the serpent that forms the sacred thread to pick up a modaka. With heavy-lidded eyes and happy disposition, Ganesha sits in ease with his upper arms raised, the drapery, head and ear ornaments, and the peak of his diadem all lending a sense of lightness and movement to this seated figure. His hair is piled up in jatamukuta with loose strands flowing down gracefully over his shoulder. He wears snake wristlets and armlets that are complimented by snake anklets around his feet. The undulating flesh of this perfectly proportioned Ganesha is tender, with each element beautifully melting into the other, making it an inviting and serene image of the elephant god.
Compare the present figure with a very similar example sold at Christie’s New York, 20 March 2012, lot 91; while the legs are held in lalitasana in contrast to the maharajalilasana of the present work, the overall modeling of the figure and the treatment of the face and diadem are particularly similar.