Lot Essay
The most comparable example published, though smaller, appears to be a seated Buddha in The Art Insitute of Chicago, dated A.D. 705 and illustrated by Saburo Matsubara, Chuugoku Bukkyo Chokukushi Ron, (The Path of Chinese Sculpture), Japan, 1995, vol. 3, no. 644. The treatment of the drapery, the hair and the positioning of the body is very similar. See also, ibid, no. 624 b, for a headless example from the Cleveland Museum of Art again with similar positioning and treatment of robes and dated A.D. 683. See also ibid, no. 791 c, a more slender example again with very similar robe treatment but a large almond-shaped mandorla rising above the head from the Zhengzhou City Museum