Object Details
Label
This gleaming, majestic Buddha Amitabha (Limitless Light in Sanskrit) meditates with his legs crossed and his right hand resting on the palm of the left. The broad, smooth planes of his face and body contrast with his patched monastic robe with delicately patterned borders. A lining incised with small flowers is visible beneath the right arm and at the back.
A long inscription on the pedestal’s lowest rim relates that a minister commissioned the image to avert border wars and help all beings attain enlightenment. The inscription also records that a team of seven artists from Nepal created and gilded the bronze.
Provenance
?-?
Unidentified individual (Tibet), method of acquisition unknown [1]
?-mid-1990s
Unidentified individual (Tokyo, Japan and New York, NY), method of acquisition unknown in Tibet [2]
Mid-1990s-2014
Alice S. Kandell, purchased from Unidentified individual (Tokyo, Japan and New York, NY), through Phillip J. Rudko in New York, NY [3]
From 2014
National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Alice S. Kandell [4]
Notes:
[1] See “Collection H (Amitabh cat. IV-2 a-c) - Tokyo Divorcee” from “Alice Kandell Exhibition (March 2010) Provenance Draft Notes,” dated July 19, 2009, p. 10. The provenance notes state that this object was in the collection of an unidentified Tokyo businessman for decades. The businessman was a collector of Japanese art. He acquired the object in Tibet and believed the object to be Japanese in origin. At some point, he brought the object to the United States for his home in New York, NY.
During the mid-1990s, Phillip J. Rudko’s friend was working on a faux painting in the businessman’s New York residence. At that time, the businessman learned that the object was Tibetan. Reportedly, the unidentified businessman discreetly sold the object to Alice S. Kandell, with Rudko as the intermediary.
[2] See note 1.
[3] See note 1.
Phillip J. Rudko, born just outside New York City in northern New Jersey, is a Russian Orthodox priest and art conservator, specializing in Tibetan objects. He works with the collector Alice Kandell as the curator of her personal collection. Rudko acquired objects through purchase and by trading his restoration services for Tibetan objects.
Alice S. Kandell is a private collector, who for decades acquired hundreds of bronze sculptures, thangkas, textile banners, painted furniture and ritual implements. Her interest in Tibetan art and culture began during her college years, when she took the first of many trips to Sikkim, Tibet and Ladakh. Throughout her career as a child psychologist in New York, she continued to pursue her love of Tibetan Buddhist sacred art, traveling, collecting and documenting the art and culture of the region in two books of photography, “Sikkim: The Hidden Kingdom” (Doubleday) and “Mountaintop Kingdom: Sikkim” (Norton).
[4] See the original Deed of Gift, dated March 18, 2011, copy in object file for S2011.10.
The object is part of the museum’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection.
Research updated December 5, 2024
Collection
Arthur M. Sackler Collection
Exhibition History
The Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room (March 12, 2022 - ongoing)
Encountering the Buddha: Art and Practice Across Asia (October 14, 2017 to February 6, 2022)
Doorway to an Enlightened World: The Tibetan Shrine from the Alice S. Kandell Collection (March 19 to November 27, 2016)
Art of the Gift: Recent Acquisitions (July 24 to December 13, 2015)
The Tibetan Shrine from the Alice S. Kandell Collection (March 13, 2010 to November 27, 2016)
Previous custodian or owner
Alice S. Kandell
Credit Line
The Alice S. Kandell Collection
Date
Second half of the 15th century
Accession Number
S2014.20
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Sculpture
Medium
Gilt copper repoussé; traces of pigment on hair and face; sealed with base plate; contents inside
Dimensions
H x W x D: 75 × 53.3 × 38.8 cm (29 1/2 × 21 × 15 1/4 in)
Origin
Ngari Province, Gungthang, Tibet
On View
East Building (Arthur M. Sackler Gallery), Gallery 26a: The Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room
Related Online Resources
Google Arts & Culture
See more items in
National Museum of Asian Art
Data Source
National Museum of Asian Art
Topic
casting
gilding
repoussé
engraving (incising)
metal
Buddhism
Amitabha Buddha
Tibet
South Asian and Himalayan Art
Alice S. Kandell Collection
Link to Original Record
Record ID
fsg_S2014.20