QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

Although the usual identifying iconographic objects, the wheel and the water pot, are missing from the present example, the figure corresponds closely with other identified 18th century images of the bodhisattva, Maitreya. Compare, for example, with a closely related figure at the palace at Chengde, identified by its inscription as Maitreya, although also missing the wheel and water pot, illustrated by Wang Jiapeng in Buddhist Art from Rehol, Taipei, 1999, p. 75, cat. no. 16. See, also, a non-gilt figure of Maitreya from the Qing Palace in Beijing, illustrated by The Palace Museum, Cultural Relics of Tibetan Buddhism Collected in the Qing Palace, Beijing, 1992, p. 68, cat. no. 40.