Bodhisattva Maitreya
Western Himalayas or Kashmir
11th c.
Bronze
Height: 30cm.

Standing in slight tribhanga on a throne inscribed with a single line of Tibetan, his right hand holding a rosary, his left a water-bottle, a stupa in his hair, the aureole with a border of recessed flame motifs.

Provenance
Private collection, U.S.A., 1980s-1994
Acquired by the vendor, Sotheby’s, New York,
4.VI.1994, lot 4
Private collection, England, 1994-2006

Exhibited
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, 2000
City Art Gallery, Southampton, 2001
The Art Institute of Chicago, 2003
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. 2003-2004

Published
* Pal, P., "Kashmir and the Tibetan Connection" in Art and Architecture of Ancient Kashmir, Marg, Bombay, 1989, no.10 (illustrated);
* Sotheby’s, Indian and Southeast Asian Art, New York, 4.VI.1994, lot 4 ($29,900);
* Michel, G. and Khanna, B., Human and Divine: 2000 Years of Indian Sculpture, London, 2000, p.22-23, no.26;
* Pal, P., Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure, Art Institute of Chicago, 2003, p.140, no.89.

This important image is one of three known bronzes bearing the same Tibetan inscription indicating ownership by Prince Lhatsun ('god-monk') Nagaraja.