CHINA, TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)

Votive gilt-bronzes of the 'Teaching Buddha', with right hand raised in variants of vitarka mudra, and left hand resting on the knee, became extremely popular from the turn of the eighth century, particularly in depictions seated upon full-blown lotus pedestals, whose petal tips evocatively push up the Buddha's billowing skirts into tiny peaks and swags. Two similar gilt-bronze figures in the collection of the Shanghai Museum are illustrated in S. Matsubara, Chugoku bukkyo chokokushi ron (The Path of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture), vol. 3, Tang, Five Dynasties, Sung and Taoism Sculpture, Tokyo, 1995, pl. 720 A and B. Compare, also, a much larger pair of stone 'Teaching Buddhas,' one dated to the Chang'an reign (AD 701-704) and the other to the Jinglong reign (AD 707-709), both in the collection of the Ruicheng County Museum, Shanxi province, illustrated in R.L. Thorp, Son of Heaven: Imperial Art of China, Seattle, 1988, pp. 108-9.