Page 38 - Bonhams IMages of Devotion, Hong Kong Nov 30 2022

1013
A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF INFANT BUDDHA Compare to a closely related example at the National Palace Museum,
CHINA, CIRCA 17TH CENTURY Taipei (Li (ed.), Imprints of Buddhas, Taipei, 2015, pp. 29-30, pl.
Himalayan Art Resources item no. 4720 3). Also see Wang (ed.), Zangchuan fojiao jintong foxiang tudian
19 cm (7 1/2 in.) high [Encyclopedia of Sino-Tibetan gilt-bronze Buddhist figures], Beijing,
1996, p. 363, pl. 346.
HKD80,000 - 120,000
Provenance
中國 約十七世紀 銅鎏金誕生佛像 Private Paris Collection

This endearing figure depicts Buddha as an infant, wearing a Chinese
style apron with an incised lotus flower. The left hand pointing to the
heavens and his right pointing to the earth, the iconography refers to
the moment when the newborn Buddha announced: ‘This birth is in
the condition of a Buddha; after this I have done with renewed birth:
now only am I born this once, for the purpose of saving all the world.’
(Beal, ‘Asvaghosa’s Life of Buddha’, in Sacred Books of the East, vol.
XIX, Oxford, 1883, p. 226.)

36 | BONHAMS
36 | BONHAMS