Standing Bodhisattva Gilt copper repoussé with polychrome Tibet

Sotheby's, New York, 23 March 2000, lot 12
Louisa Muller, Brussels

The deity standing in elegant tribhanga on a single-foliate lotus throne, the right hand outstretched in varadamudra and the left hand grasping the sacred thread across his powerfully built torso, his curled black tresses cascading down his shoulders, swept upward over the ushnisha and surmounted by a cintamani, a rectangular urna between his finely arched eyebrows, his elongated and serene eyes framing a strong aquiline nose and sensual red lips.

The figure is adorned in elaborate bodhisattva jewelry: a diadem across the forehead, large elaborate earrings, decorative armlets, bracelets and anklets, his diaphanous, delicately patterned dhoti clasped at the waist with an elegant, incised jewel belt, and falling in voluminous pleats to his ankles.