A RARE BRONZE FIGURE OF THE SEATED BUDDHA

10TH CENTURY, YUNNAN

Details

A RARE BRONZE FIGURE OF THE SEATED BUDDHA
10TH CENTURY, YUNNAN
Shown seated in virasana and with hands in abhayamudra, wearing a bead-hung foliate necklace, bangles and beaded earrings, the gracefully draped robes falling in crisp folds around the body, the finely cast face with an urna on the forehead and the hair dressed in small tight curls that cover the gently rounded usnisa, with mottled dark brown, malachite and azurite patina
7¼ in. (18.4 cm.) high

Lot Essay

Stylistic features link this figure to a distinctive group of 10th-12th century bronze figures from Yunnan province that display a unique blend of Chinese and Southeast Asian influences. Two related gilt-bronze figures of the seated Buddha, one in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Ivan B. Hart and the other in the Williams College Museum of Art, are illustrated by S. Lee and Wai-Kam Ho, Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yüan Dynasty (1279-1368), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, 1968, nos. 12 and 13, respectively. Another similar figure in The Cleveland Museum of Art is illustrated by S. Matsubara, Chuugoku bukkyo chokokushi ron (The Path of Chinese Buddhist Sculpture), vol. 3, Tang, Five Dynasties, Sung and Taoism Sculpture, Tokyo, 1955, no. 822.

More from Fine Chinese Furniture, Archaic Bronzes and Works of Art

View All