STATUETTE DE MILAREPA EN ALLIAGE DE CUIVRETIBET CENTRAL, XVE/XVIE SIÈCLEHimalayan Art Resources item no. 487712.4 cm (4 7/8 in.) highProvenance: A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF MILAREPACENTRAL TIBET, 15TH/16TH CENTURY藏中 十五/十六世紀 密勒日巴銅像Provenance:With Claude de Marteau, Brussels, by 1970sOnly a few masters today are admired as widely as Milarepa (1040-1123), whose lifestory symbolizes the purest ideal of devotion and human endeavor towards achieving spiritual transformation within a single lifetime. His biography, which tells of many hards in his pursuit of wisdom andpassion, has inspired innumerable generations. This radical yogi-poet influenced all orders of Tibetan Buddhism, and, perhaps far greater, his songs convertedplex religious texts and ideas to a format accessible for the illiterate multitude. Here, in his archetypal pose, he c his ear with his right hand to better hear his pitch, in a gesture echoing the legend of his one thousand songs.This idiosyncratic portrait features Milarepa atop an antelope skin on a domed base. Like his robes, the hemispheric platform is incised with large lotus flowers and foliage patterns. The superb technique of crosshatching and stippling to illustrate various textures reflects one of the non-gilded styles associated with Tsang Province, Central Tibet. (For further discussion of the technique, refer to , New York, 21 March 2023, lot 521.) The floral patterns are redolent of luxurious embroidered textiles, which the rulers of China donated to Tibet's theocratic institutions. Closely related designs are incised across the back of the lotus base underneath a figure of Dragpa Sherab sold at , Hong Kong, 30 November 2022, lot 1025.Milarepa's meditation band is treated with deep and tight crossed lines, reminiscent of a hem on another Tibetan yogi sold at , Hong Kong, 5 October 2020, lot 112. The antelope skin covering the base, featuring short hatch marks that give likeness to the pelt's fur, can be seen on at least two other non-gilded bronzes of the present subject (HAR 1761; Sotheby's, New York, 20 September 2021, lot 337). Alsopare the antelope skin to other contemporaneous bronze mahasiddha figures, including Tilopa (von Schroeder,Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, 2001, vol. II, p. 1202, no. 328A) and Kanha in the Rubin Museum of Art, New York (C2003.24.4). An image of Milarepa in the Lhasa Museum also shows the ascetic sitting on a dome-shaped base (HAR 101727).