A SILVER-INLAID BRONZE FIGURE OF BUDDHA, SWAT VALLEY, 7TH-8TH CENTURY

拍品描述

A SILVER-INLAID BRONZE FIGURE OF BUDDHA, SWAT VALLEY, 7TH-8TH CENTURY Seated in vajrasana upon a double-lotus base, the figure rises against a tall mandorla of flickering flames worked in openwork relief. The hands rest in the lap and at the knee, the right lowered in a gesture toward the lotus throne and the left held above the crossed legs. The torso is bare save for a beaded necklace and a sacred cord that crosses the chest, the lower body covered by a finely pleated dhoti gathered at the waist. The face is broad and rounded, with heavy-lidded downcast eyes inlaid in silver, an urna inlaid at the brow, full lips drawn into a faint smile, and elongated earlobes. The hair is drawn up into a tall conical chignon secured by a three-leaf tiara, with looped side ornaments framing the temples. The surface carries a deep green and cuprite-red patina with extensive earthen encrustation, and traces of the original silver inlay remain visible at the eyes and forehead. The combination of crossed-legged posture, princely ornament, and flaming aureole identifies the figure within the broader Vajrayana iconographic field that emerged in the western Himalayan foothills during the early medieval period. The flame mandorla, rare at this scale in Swat bronzes, signals a transcendent or wrathful aspect, while the meditative posture and serene facial type retain the contemplative bearing of earlier Gandharan Buddha imagery. The silver inlay at the eyes and urna is a defining technical feature of the Swat workshops, intended to animate the gaze under low temple light and to mark the points of spiritual sight on the body. Swat Valley bronzes of the seventh and eighth centuries occupy a transitional position between the late Gandharan inheritance and the emerging Tibetan and Kashmiri Buddhist traditions. The region, identified in later Tibetan sources as Uddiyana, was understood as a sacred land associated with the origins of tantric Buddhism and with the figure of Padmasambhava, and bronzes produced there were carried north into Tibet as relics of that sanctified geography. The alloy itself, a high-tin bronze worked by lost-wax casting and then cold-finished with silver and occasionally copper inlay, was a costly medium reserved for monastic and elite patronage. The choice of inlaid silver was not decorative alone but devotional, the precious metal marking the points at which the image was understood to see and to be seen. This bronze exemplifies the small-scale portable devotional sculpture of the Swat Valley at its mature moment, in which Gandharan facial conventions, princely ornament drawn from Indic models, and the new flaming-aureole iconography of esoteric Buddhism are reconciled within a single compact image. The survival of its silver inlay and the integrity of its flame mandorla place it among the more complete examples of the type. Height: 15.5cm

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