Lamp Bearer, Presumed Portrait of a Nobleman

Nepal

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 252

This figure’s Rajput-style dress was popular in court circles in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Nepal. The sculpture carries a donor inscription that identifies him as Sri Muni Vajracharya, a member of the Varyacharya caste. He holds an oil lamp with a dragon handle and an elegant ewer in his extended hands as offerings to the presiding deity, here named as Padmapani Lokesvara, the lotus-bearing bodhisattva of compassion.

Lamp Bearer, Presumed Portrait of a Nobleman, Gilt-copper alloy, Nepal

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Lamp Bearer, Presumed Portrait of a Nobleman, Gilt-copper alloy, Nepal
Lamp Bearer, Presumed Portrait of a Nobleman, Gilt-copper alloy, Nepal
Lamp Bearer, Presumed Portrait of a Nobleman, Gilt-copper alloy, Nepal
Lamp Bearer, Presumed Portrait of a Nobleman, Gilt-copper alloy, Nepal
Lamp Bearer, Presumed Portrait of a Nobleman, Gilt-copper alloy, Nepal

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