SRI LANKA, KANDYAN PERIOD, 18TH CENTURY

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A Large Gilt Bronze Figure of Buddha Shakyamuni
Sri Lanka, Kandyan Period, 18th Century
The broad shouldered figure standing in samapada on an octagonal plinth with his right hand incised with auspicious emblems and raised in vitarka mudra, wearing an elaborately pleated sanghati with sash over his left shoulder, his expressively cast face with incised arched brows centered by a spiral urna over lidded downcast eyes, aquiline nose and pursed lips flanked by long pendulous pierced lobes, his peaked hairline formed from beaded curls rising to a separately cast five-fold siraspata, richly gilt overall
17½ in. (44.5 cm.) high

Lot Essay

This sculpture is solid cast, as is characteristic in Sri Lanka beginning with the late Anuradhapura period, and as dictated by the Sariputra, canon of proportions to be followed for making Buddha images. The consistency of style is further guaranteed by the employment of matrices of body parts for the wax models in preparing the casts. However, while Kandyan sculpture is consistent in its broad shouldered outline, there is considerable variation in the rendering of the robe, with various degrees of undulation in the wave patterns of the folds, as well as the hemline of the sanghati draped across the left shoulder; compare other examples in U. von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures of Sri Lanka, 1990, pl. 165-67. While the earlobes sometimes extend down to the shoulder, they are here very delicately supported by a fine rod.

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