A COPPER ALLOY SEATED TARAQING, LATE 17TH/18TH CENTURY Himalayan Art Resources item no. 1424 4 3/4 in. (12 cm) high 清 十七世紀晚期/十八世紀 度母銅像 The Qing court's taste for Buddhist sculpture made in the Indian Pala style is clearly evident in the holdings of The Palace Museum, Beijing and the Rehol palace. (See Cultural Relics of Tibetan Buddhism Collected in the Qing Palace , Beijing, 1992 and Chang & Hsu, Buddhist Art from Rehol , Taipei, 1999, respectively.) Benefiting relations between the court and Buddhist adherents in Mongol and Tibetan regions, the devout Qianlong emperor proclaimed himself to be a reincarnation of Manjusri and the ruler of the Buddhist faith. The Qianlong emperormissioned thangkas, sculptures, and ritual objects to be created and dispersed to all areas. The inspiration for the Pala revival style is unclear, but we can surmise that artisans were working from prototypes held in the Palace Collection. See von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes , 1981, p. 383, nos. 103E & F, dated 1661 and 1691 respectively. Alsopare with another image sold at Christie's, New York, 22 March 2011, lot 300. Provenance: Private American Collection, acquired in Japan in the 1970s