A bronze figure of Vajrapani, Java, 10th century

Collection of George Sheridan (1923-2008), acquired in Paris, London and New York from the 1960s onwards, and thence by descent; a passion nurtured from his friendship with Professor Samuel Eilenberg (1913-1998), who donated his collection to the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 1987.

The sattvaparyankasana seated posture with right hand in varada mudra and the left holding a flower stem is a common formula to portray bodhisattvas in early Javanese art. The attribute atop the flower at the left shoulder seems to resemble the bound sutra seen on statues of the bodhisattva Manjushri, such as a silver example in the Linden-Museum, see Jan Fontein, The Sculpture of Indonesia, Washington and New York, 1990, cat. no. 47. The seven purnaghata vases along the lower rim of the pedestal are however unusual for a depiction of a bodhisattva, and more commonly seen on statues of the wealth god Jambhala: compare the seven vases with similar finials on a 9th century example found at Ngepok, ibid., p. 189.