15TH/16TH CENTURY

It is rare to find examples cast with fine details, particularly the unusual, highly ornate design of the headdress. The five-leafed diadem is cast in openwork with each leaf formed by a double-arched nimbus accommodating a seated deity. For a similar headdress see. a seated Maitreya in the Nitta collection, included in the exhinbition, The Crucible of Compassion and Wisdom, illustrated in the Catalogue, no.117, p.214.

Although the headdress of the Nitta example is more stylised in comparison, the variegated floral design of the base and along the garment edges are treated in the same fashion as the present example. The floral scrolls of the latter is more compact on a 'fish roe' ground. Stylistically the flowers are closely related to those found on late Yuan and early Ming period porcelain, particularly lotuses with fish-tail like petals. For comparisons with motifs of this type, see. the cavetto band on a large Yuan blue and white dish in the British Museum, illustrated by S Vainker, Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, 1991, p.139, no.102; and on Hongwu period porcelains, see the exhibition of Imperial Hongwu and Yongle porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, the Chang Foundation, Taibei, 1996, Catalogue, nos.5, 7 and 8.