NORTHERN WEI DYNASTY

Details

A Grey Limestone Figure of a Seated Maitreya Buddha
Northern Wei Dynasty
The slender figure seated with ankles crossed and flanked by two lions, with right hand in abhayamudra while the left hand rests atop the left knee, wearing thin robes and a long scarf draped over the shoulders and overlapped below the waist before continuing over the thighs, the long narrow face well-carved below hair gathered in a flared topknot
17½in. (44.4cm.) high, stand

Provenance

Mathias Komor, New York, C 46.

Special notice

Tax exempt.

Lot Essay

This figure is similar to other figures of Maitreya Buddha dated to the Northern Wei period and thought to come from the Longmen caves. See the example without lions in the Norton Gallery, West Palm Beach, Florida, and illustrated in A Handbook of the Chinese Collections, 1972, no. 103, where figures of this small size are described as being carved in the spaces between the larger figures arranged in niches around the walls of the caves at Longmen.

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