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Lot 87*
THE SNAKE KING MUCHALINDA AND HIS CONSORT
Estimated Value:
2.400 € - 2.800 €
Result:
6.666 € incl. Premium and VAT
Description:
Bhutan, 18th c.H. 16,5 cm
Mucalinda is the king of snakes. He attained special significance in the fifth week after Buddha's enlightenment, when he stayed at the dwelling of the snake king Mucilinda. During the whole week there was a bad storm, and then the snake-king Mucilinda came out of his house and wrapped himself in a sevenfold ring around the Buddha's body, covering Him with his seven bonnets. For he said to himself, 'The cold wind shall not attack the body of the Exalted One. This rare depiction shows the Serpent King, whose divine body is fused with the trunk of a snake, clothed with the fivefold crown and jewellery of a Bodhisattva. From his back rises the seven-headed serpent that shields Mucilinda's crowned head. In his right hand he holds a wish jewel and on his left an eight-petalled lotus flower. Embracing his lap, with her serpentine body and also covered by seven serpentine heads, is his partner, a Nagini. She too wears the fivefold crown and bodhisattva jewellery. In her two hands clasped together in front of her chest she holds a bundle of jewels. Both sit in loving union, symbolising wisdom and compassion, on a many-petalled lotus. Copper alloy, polychrome painted, partially gilded; base plate present.
Old Strasbourg private collection, collected before 1990 - Wear
