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Lot Essay
Regarded as the successor of Shakyamuni or Future Buddha, Maitreya presides in the Tushita Heaven until her wisdom is required on Earth. By Chinese calculation of the times, the influence of Shakyamuni’s teachings should have ended in the year AD 552 – roughly 1,000 years after the death of the historical Buddha – ushering in the mofa, or period of the decline of Buddhist law. Such millennial speculation gave rise to the belief that decline and corruption were imminent and that the appearance of Maitreya as the Buddha of the Future could not be far away, which led to a surge in Maitreya’s popularity in the 6th century and the resultant increase in the number of Maitreya images created for worship.
Figures with Tibetan influence in the casting, such as the present lot, would have been part of a set of eight, depicting the Eight Great Bodhisattvas with either Shakyamuni or Amitabha Buddha in the middle. For an example of a set of eight figures see Buddhist Art from Rehol, Tibetan Buddhist Images and Ritual Objects from the Qing Dynasty Summer Palace at Chengde, Taipei, 1999, pp. 70-73. Also, the present figure can be compared to the standing Maitreya presented to the Qing court as a gift from the Dalai Lama, as indicated by its yellow inventory label, and illustrated in Cultural Relics of Tibetan Buddhism Collected in the Qing Palace, Forbidden City Press, 1992, p. 68, no. 40.
Figures with Tibetan influence in the casting, such as the present lot, would have been part of a set of eight, depicting the Eight Great Bodhisattvas with either Shakyamuni or Amitabha Buddha in the middle. For an example of a set of eight figures see Buddhist Art from Rehol, Tibetan Buddhist Images and Ritual Objects from the Qing Dynasty Summer Palace at Chengde, Taipei, 1999, pp. 70-73. Also, the present figure can be compared to the standing Maitreya presented to the Qing court as a gift from the Dalai Lama, as indicated by its yellow inventory label, and illustrated in Cultural Relics of Tibetan Buddhism Collected in the Qing Palace, Forbidden City Press, 1992, p. 68, no. 40.