Page 60 - 2019 September 10th Sotheby's Important Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist Art, New York

58 SOTHEBY’S NEW YORK 10 SEPTEMBER 2019 BODIES OF INFINITE LIGHT

315 A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF MAITREYA

MING DYNASTY, 16TH CENTURY

the corpulent jovial figure cast seated and at ease, holding
a small attribute in the proper left hand, the rotund belly
protruding from a loosely draped robe with chased lotus
meander borders secured at the waist with a tasseled belt,
raised on a rounded cushion, supported on a floral scroll-
decorated domed base, the reverse bearing a Tibetan inscription
Height 8⅞ in., 22.6 cm

PROVENANCE
The Chang Foundation Collection.
LITERATURE
Jintongfo zaoxiang tulu/Buddhist Images in Gilt Metal, Taipei,
1993, pl. 24.

The inscription in Tibetan script on the back of the base
translates to ‘He with everything in his left hand’. Typically,
depictions of Budai Maitreya will show the god with a cloth
sack that is filled with his worldly possessions. Despite
poverty, his happiness is boundless and he is invariably
depicted thus. The raised proper right hand of the present
figure likely once held the top of a cloth sack, and the
attribute in the opposite hand resembles a single jewel,
symbolically his only possession.

明十六世紀 銅鎏金彌勒佛坐像
來源
鴻禧美術館收藏

出版
《金銅佛造像圖錄》，台北，1993年，圖版24

$ 30,000-50,000