A silver and gilt-copper figure of White Tara, Tibet, 15th century | 十五世紀 藏傳鎏金銅錯銀白度母坐像

The White Tara is here cast in silver with turquoise inset jewellery, her right hand extended in varada mudra, her left in vitarka, both hands holding the golden stems of lotus flowers blossoming at the shoulders, the face painted gold according to Tibetan ritual practise, and seated in vajraparyankasana on a circular gilded copper lotus pedestal

The silver Tara and the elegant circular gilt copper pedestal are cast in a mature fifteenth century central Tibetan style. Unmistakably Tibetan in its iconography and style, the sculpture nevertheless incorporates foreign sculptural traditions that have been absorbed by Tibetan artists and patrons over centuries. The color combination of a silver figure on a gilded copper base is a sculptural device originating in India during the Pala period (8th-12th century), seen for example in the eastern Indian silver Maitreya in the Cleveland Museum of Art, see Weldon and Casey Singer, The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, London, 1999, pp. 22-23, figs. 15, 16. Examples of this elegant and innovative Pala style were brought to Tibet and venerated in monastery collections, where they served as inspiration to local artists in works such as the twelfth or thirteenth century silver bodhisattva with gilt copper base in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, ibid, p. 96, pl. 15, and the renowned fifteenth century Milarepa previously in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, see Sotheby’s New York, 21 March, 2023, lot 108, and a fifteenth century silver Ushnishavijaya and gilded copper pedestal in the Berti Aschmann Collection at Museum Rietberg, see Helmut Uhlig, On the Path to Enlightenment, Zürich, 1995, p. 153, cat. no 98.

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本尊鎏金銅錯銀白度母和圓形鎏金銅座造型優雅，充分展現十五世紀西藏中部風格成熟的鑄造工藝。雕塑之圖像不可置疑地為藏傳風格，但同時亦融合外來雕塑風格，可見當時藏傳藝術家和布施者均受外界薰陶。

銅錯銀白度母搭配鎏金銅底座之配色造型源自印度帕拉時期（八至十二世紀），可參考克利夫蘭藝術博物館中一尊東印度銀質彌勒佛，見Weldon和Casey Singer，《西藏的雕塑遺產：Nyingjei Lam收藏之佛教藝術》，倫敦，1999年，22至23頁，圖15及16。印度帕拉風格之雕像造型優雅創新，被引進西藏並受寺院收藏，成為當地藝術家靈感來源，如Nyingjei Lam收藏之十二或十三世紀銀菩薩鎏金銅座，同上，96頁，圖15。見紐約蘇富比，2023年3月21日，編號108；以及里特貝格博物館Berti Aschmann收藏之十五世紀銀尊勝佛母鎏金銅座，見Helmut Uhlig, 《覺醒之路》，蘇黎世，1995年，153頁，編號98。