Un bodhisattva néwar au musée Guimet

In May 1987, the Musée Guimet bought in London a rare sculpture of a bodhisattva from Nepal. The piece, made by the lost wax process, is in quite pure copper as many old nepali statuettes. It contains some metal shafts to give more solidity to the figure before and after the cooking. This inside structure appears by radio examination. In the head, its top extremity is scroolled on, in crozier shape. This strange particularity is also present on another sculpture of a bodhisattva in the Guimet collection (MA 3373). To give a precise iconographical identification of this deity is difficult. The lotus flower, took by the left hand and perhaps supporting some attributes, and disappeared. However, the right hand is depicted in argumentation gesture (vitarka- mudrâ). In the group of eight or sixteen important bodhisattva, only Maitreya and Manjuçrî usually do this mudrâ. In a strict canonical iconography Maitreya, as a bodhisattva, bears a stûpa in his hairdress. It is true that this rule is not strictly used in Nepal. But without any definit argument, it is reasonable to identifie the new bodhisattva of the Musée Guimet as Manjuçrî. The sculpture belongs to the classical style of the XIIe-XIIIe century. Close comparisons with other bronzes give some more similitudes with the imposing figures of the XIIIe century than with the refined pieces of the XIIe century. In the XIVe century, a new taste for affected attitudes and decorative ornaments appears.