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Lot Essay
The Ming emperors had a strong interest in Tibetan Buddhism from the start of the dynasty, when the Hongwu Emperor sent a letter of praise to the Fourth Karmapa. The Yongle Emperor was the first Ming emperor to establish significant ties with Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan art received court patronage throughout much of the Ming dynasty. As a result, during the Yongle (1402-1424) and Xuande (1425-1435) reigns, the imperial workshops produced refined gilt-bronze Buddhist sculptures. As with the current figure, these imperial commissions were used to strengthen secular and religious alliances with Tibet and were presented as gifts to Tibetan hierarchs and monasteries.
Maitreya is the only divinity in Buddhism revered as both a bodhisattva and a Buddha. He is a bodhisattva in the present cosmic era. In the next era, he will enter his final rebirth, achieve enlightenment and take his place as the teaching Buddha (see D. Leidy, Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2010, p. 66).
In this sculpture, Maitreya is depicted with his hands in the dharmachakra mudra, the gesture of teaching, and holding the stems of blossoms from the Nagapuṣpa—the tree under which he will expound the dharma when he appears on earth. A vessel resting on the bloom by his right shoulder is interpreted as a sign of his future incarnation (see Christian Luczanits, Gandhara: The Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan, 2009, p. 250).
A related Yongle-period gilt bronze, once in the Speelman Collection, portrays Maitreya in his future Buddha form, wearing a simple sanghati and standing with his hands in abhaya and varada mudra; see Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7 October 2006, lot 803. At least three additional Yongle statues depict Maitreya as a princely bodhisattva, attesting to the prominence of his cult during this era; see Ulrich von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, Hong Kong, 2001, vol. II, pl. 343F; The Chang Foundation, Buddhist Images in Gilt Metal, Taipei, 1993, cat. 22; and Ulrich von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, 147E. The distinctive Nagapuṣpa leaves that cascade from the stems at the shoulders clearly mark these images as representations of Maitreya and differ notably from the lotus or other botanical motifs found on Yongle sculptures of different deities.
Maitreya is the only divinity in Buddhism revered as both a bodhisattva and a Buddha. He is a bodhisattva in the present cosmic era. In the next era, he will enter his final rebirth, achieve enlightenment and take his place as the teaching Buddha (see D. Leidy, Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2010, p. 66).
In this sculpture, Maitreya is depicted with his hands in the dharmachakra mudra, the gesture of teaching, and holding the stems of blossoms from the Nagapuṣpa—the tree under which he will expound the dharma when he appears on earth. A vessel resting on the bloom by his right shoulder is interpreted as a sign of his future incarnation (see Christian Luczanits, Gandhara: The Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan, 2009, p. 250).
A related Yongle-period gilt bronze, once in the Speelman Collection, portrays Maitreya in his future Buddha form, wearing a simple sanghati and standing with his hands in abhaya and varada mudra; see Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7 October 2006, lot 803. At least three additional Yongle statues depict Maitreya as a princely bodhisattva, attesting to the prominence of his cult during this era; see Ulrich von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, Hong Kong, 2001, vol. II, pl. 343F; The Chang Foundation, Buddhist Images in Gilt Metal, Taipei, 1993, cat. 22; and Ulrich von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, 147E. The distinctive Nagapuṣpa leaves that cascade from the stems at the shoulders clearly mark these images as representations of Maitreya and differ notably from the lotus or other botanical motifs found on Yongle sculptures of different deities.