A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF BUDDHA

SRI LANKA, KANDYAN PERIOD, 18TH CENTURY

Footnotes

斯里蘭卡　康提時期　十八世紀　銅鎏金佛陀立像

Provenance:
Private Collection, Germany
Swoon Art, Harrogate
Private Collection, Singapore

Sri Lanka maintains the longest continuous tradition of Buddhism in the world, and this is evident in the evolution of the representation of the Buddha forms created on the island. Sri Lankan Buddha statues are distinguished by their elegance and air of benign authority. Instead of an ushinisha, the more familiar cranial flaming protuberance is typically characteristic of Sri Lankan images of the Buddha.

The folds of the robe are draped asymmetrically across his body, emulating the Anuradhapura style and indicating the soft, delicate cotton garment worn in a tropical climate. The gentle drapes of cloth suggest the sheer texture of the fabric beneath the right chest. In the 18th century Kandy, the continuous pleats of the earlier visual culture evolved into a symphony of rippling intensity that enlivens the otherwise static Buddha figure. His right hand raised in the gesture of teaching bears an etched lotus, which is an element unique to the Kandyan period.

Comparable examples published in von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures of Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, 1980, nos.165-67. A closely related figure with cracked base was sold at Sotheby's, London, 5 June 1989, lot 82 and Bonhams, Hong Kong, 3 October 2017, lot 39.