





A rare gilt copper-alloy figure of crowned Buddha Tibet, 15th century
£50,000 - £70,000
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Chinese Art (US)

Chinese Art (HK)

Asaph Hyman
Global Head of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art

Dessa Goddard
Senior Vice President, US Head, Asian Art Group

Colin Sheaf
Consultant
Shipping (UK)

Rachel Hyman
Department Director

Asian Art (AUS)
A rare gilt copper-alloy figure of crowned Buddha
The figure exquisitely cast seated in vajrasana, with the right hand reaching down towards the ground in bhumisparsha mudra, the left hand held gently in the lap in dhyana mudra, adorned in a simple dhoti with beaded and ring-punched hems, the serene face with a gentle smile beneath a high six-pointed tiara with Buddhas and inlaid with turquoise, the base unsealed, with scrolls within the interior. 27cm (10 5/8in) high.
Footnotes
十五世紀 銅鎏金寶冠佛像
Provenance: a European private collection
來源:歐洲私人收藏
This figure may represent either Akshobhya, assuming it was part of a set of Five Presiding Buddhas, or Crowned Shakyamuni, assuming it was the central element of its ensemble. While Shakyamuni's renunciation of his royal birth makes it unlikely he would be represented with a crown, Bautze-Picron has explained the coalescence of Indian political, devotional, and philosophical developments that resulted in Shakyamuni's spiritual authority being emphasised with royal regalia by the end of the first millenium AD; see Bautze-Picron, The Bejewelled Buddha from India to Burma, New Delhi, 2010.
Compare with a related but slightly earlier gilt-bronze figure of Buddha Vajradhara, 14th century, illustrated by A.Lutz, On the Path to Enlightenment: The Berti Aschman Foundation of Tibetan Art at the Museum Rietberg Zurich, Zurich, 1995, p.61, no.21.