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Lot Essay
Maitreya Buddha governs two perfected worlds: Tushita Heaven, which he currently inhabits, and Ketumati, an ideal realm conducive to the pursuit of enlightenment where he will serve as the teaching Buddha.
Gilt-bronze figures of Maitreya Buddha dated to the Sui dynasty are extremely rare, and the present figure is further distinguished by the superb casting and particularly sensitive treatment of the drapery and the proportions of the body. A very similar gilt-bronze figure dated to the late Sui dynasty, but of larger size (32.4 cm. high), from the Nitta Group Collection was included in the exhibition, The Crucible of Compassion and Wisdom, The National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1987, p. 169, pl. 72, and was later sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 26-27 April 1998, lot 601. Another similar example of approximately the same size (19.4 cm. high), but exhibiting slightly more simplified treatment of the drapery, is in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery and illustrated in Hai-Wai Yi-Chen, Buddhist Sculpture, Taipei, 1986, p. 86, no. 63.
Gilt-bronze figures of Maitreya Buddha dated to the Sui dynasty are extremely rare, and the present figure is further distinguished by the superb casting and particularly sensitive treatment of the drapery and the proportions of the body. A very similar gilt-bronze figure dated to the late Sui dynasty, but of larger size (32.4 cm. high), from the Nitta Group Collection was included in the exhibition, The Crucible of Compassion and Wisdom, The National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1987, p. 169, pl. 72, and was later sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 26-27 April 1998, lot 601. Another similar example of approximately the same size (19.4 cm. high), but exhibiting slightly more simplified treatment of the drapery, is in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery and illustrated in Hai-Wai Yi-Chen, Buddhist Sculpture, Taipei, 1986, p. 86, no. 63.