Page 150 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

PROPERTY OF THE BASS MUSEUM OF ART, SOLD TO
BENEFIT THE ACQUISITIONS FUND

1424
A LARGE CAST AND REPOUSSÉ GILT-
BRONZE FIGURE OF MAITREYA

QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

The bodhisattva stands on a lotus base with
the right hand raised and the left at his side.
He is garbed in a diaphanous dhoti and is
adorned with beaded jewelry, with a lotus
blossom at each shoulder. The face is serene
in expression, surmounted by a foliate tiara,
and backed by a nimbus of radiating beams
of light.
27 in. (68.6 cm.) high

$60,000-80,000

PROVENANCE

Cesa Atrium, Zurich, 29 August 1969.

Although the usual identifying iconographic
objects, the wheel and the water pot, are missing
from the present example, the fgure corresponds
closely with other identifed 18th century images
of the bodhisattva, Maitreya. Compare, for
example, with a closely related fgure at the
palace at Chengde, identifed by its inscription
as Maitreya, although also missing the wheel
and water pot, illustrated by Wang Jiapeng in
Buddhist Art from Rehol, Taipei, 1999, p. 75, cat.
no. 16. See, also, a non-gilt fgure of Maitreya
from the Qing Palace in Beijing, illustrated by
The Palace Museum, Cultural Relics of Tibetan
Buddhism Collected in the Qing Palace, Beijing,
1992, p. 68, cat. no. 40.
清乾隆 鎏金鑄銅錘鍱彌勒菩薩立像

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