A BRONZE FIGURE OF VAIKUNTHA VISHNU WITH ATTENDANTS

Estimated Value:

30.000 € - 50.000 €

Result:

38.850 € incl. Premium and VAT

Description:

Himachal Pradesh, 9th/ 10th century
H. 37,8 cm
Standing in samabhanga on a rectangular plinth with the Earth Goddess Prithvi placed between his feet, his four arms radiating around his body, his principle hands holding lotus and conch, both secondary ones resting on the heads of the diminutive female goddess Gadanari respectively male divinity Chakrapurusha, wearing dhoti fastened around the waist with a belt, flower garland, bejewelled, the central human face displaying a serene expression with low alloy silver almond-shaped eyes, smiling lips, elongated earlobes, flanked by a lion and boar hea, a ferocious face at the back and his hair combed in a chignon and secured with a tiara.
Old Bavarian private collection, assembled since the early 1960s, acquired from Baron Reibnitz, Munich on 27 February 1988, no. 5074 (original invoice preserved)
The name Vaikuntha was first mentioned in the 7th-century Vishnudharmottarapurana, where Vishnu is described as manifesting in the form of a four-headed god, with a peaceful human face in front, a lion and a boar's face on the two sides, and a ferocious face at the back. Vaikuntha Vishnu was extremely popular in Kashmir during the 8th to 10th centuries. Several sculptures of the same subject, both in metal and stone, have survived from the period. The present work is closely related to two other Vaikuntha sculptures from the same period-one formerly in the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection and currently preserved at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.80.6.2), and the other previously in the John D. Rockefeller III Collection and currently in the Asia Society Museum, New York (1979.43) - Wear, chipped

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