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Padmapani Avalokiteshvara

CultureIndian
Date9th century C.E.
MediumBronze with traces of gilding
DimensionsOverall: 6 1/4 × 3 5/8 inches (15.88 × 9.21 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number54-73
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 228
Exhibition History

Art of Greater India, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, March 1-April 16, 1950, no. 63 as Avalokitesvara.

Master Bronzes of India, The Art Institute of Chicago, September 3-October 10, 1965; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, October 21-November 30, 1965; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, January 18-February 27, 1966; Asia House Gallery, New York, October 12-December 11, 1966, no. 4 as Buddhist Lord of Compassion (Avalokitesvara Padmapani).

Indian Buddhist Sculpture in American Collections, Speed Museum, Louisville, KY, February 27-March 31, 1968, no. 51 as Seated Avalokitesvara (Padmapani).

Gallery Label
A figure of the compassionate bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara sits in a relaxed posture against a round mandorla of light. He holds a lotus (padma, as indicated in the work’s title) in his left hand and performs the gesture of reassurance with his right hand. He sits on a double lotus atop an elaborate lion pedestal. The inscription at the base of the pedestal reads, "This is the pious gift of the Elder Divakarasoma." Gifts of Buddhist images were believed to help the giver earn spiritual merit.
Provenance

With Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, by 1950;

Purchased from Heeramaneck Galleries by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1954.

Published References

Alice Getty, The Gods of Northern Buddhism: Their History, Iconography and Progressive Evolution through the Northern Buddhist Countries (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1914), 48, plate 21d, (repro.).

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Art of Greater India: 3000 B.C.-2800 A.D., edited by Henry Trubner, exh. cat. (Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum, 1950), 37, fig. 63, (repro.).

“Oriental Art Recently Acquired by American Museums,” in Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America 9 (1955): 87, fig. 23, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 230, (repro.).

Alice Getty, The Gods of Northern Buddhism: Their History, Iconography and Progressive Evolution through the Northern Buddhist Countries (Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1962), 62, plate 21d, (repro.).

Art Institute of Chicago and William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Master Bronzes of India, exh. cat. (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1965), unpaginated, (repro.).

W. E. Begley, Indian Buddhist Sculpture in American Collections, exh. cat. (Louisville, KY: J.B. Speed Art Museum, 1968), unpaginated.

Pratapaditya Pal, “The Rich Variety of the Indian Bronze,” in Apollo, 97 (March 1973): 77, fig. 7, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 2, Art of the Orient, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 130, (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 382, (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 262, fig. 17, (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.


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