A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA

YUAN DYNASTY, EARLY 14TH CENTURY

Footnotes

元 十四世紀初 銅鎏金釋迦牟尼像

This handsome, softly-modeled bronze depicts Shakyamuni Buddha with his right hand touching the ground, calling on the Earth to bear witness to his enlightenment (bhumisparsha mudra). The sculpture is a rare example of Buddha images created during the Mongol-ruled Yuan dynasty, a short but intensely creative period for Chinese Buddhist art.

One important stylistic detail pointing to the bronze's early 14th century date is the scroll pattern engraved within the robe's beaded borders, which was tremendously popular during the Yuan dynasty. Here the design appears more abstract than those seen in some other Yuan-dynasty textiles or bronzes (compare the decorative patterns behind donor figures on the famous kesi Vajrabhairava mandala in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1992.54), or the hems of a Yuan bronze of Shakyamuni published in Bigler, Before Yongle, 2013, pp.92-3, no.21). However, the scrolls are almost identical to those on an inscribed gilt bronze figure of Dharmachakra Manjushri at the Palace Museum, Beijing, dated 1305 (see ibid., p.11, fig.3). The patterns on the present bronze and the dated example are both formed by a series of tiny punched circles rather than continuous lines. The lotus petals of the two bronzes, each consisting of a teardrop-shaped inner petal with incised borders and a relatively flat outer petal with a slightly raised tip, are also closely related.

Another unique feature characteristic of Buddha images from this period is the visvavajra-filled square applied to the corner of Shakyamuni's robe falling on the back of his left shoulder. This is shared by two other Yuan-dynasty Buddha bronzes published in ibid., pp.92-5 & 112-3, nos.21 & 26. Buddha's oversized ushnisha is also typical of Yuan style, which continued into the early Ming dynasty (for Yuan examples, see ibid., pp.44-7 & 112-3, nos.7 & 26; for early Ming examples, see von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, Vol.II, 2003, p.1253, no.344D & 344E).

Provenance:
Private Swiss Collection