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PROPERTY OF A LADY
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A FINE GILT BRONZE FIGURE OF BUDDHA SAKYAMUNI For another gilt-bronze figure of Buddha Sakyamuni of similar size, see
17th century James Spencer, Buddhist Images in Gilt Metal, Chang Foundation,
Seated in vajrasana with the hands held in dhyanamudra, with wide Taipei, 1993, pp. 38-39, no. 12. The figure is less slender in the middle
shoulders and relatively small but naturalistically modelled head with torso than ours but the wide shoulders certainly bear comparison as
a soft benevolent expression, with high arching brows above heavy- does the treatment of the lotus base. In our figure, the petals continue
lidded eyes and long triangular nose above a small but full fleshy around the entire circumference, unlike the Chang Foundation
mouth, his hair tightly knotted and rising to a small domed usnisa, example.
large pendulous ears frame the head, his robes draped over one
shoulder, the other exposed, the hems delicately cast and incised with Buddha Sakyamuni was the founder of Buddhism and according to
scrolling lotus, a pleated inner garment decorated with three round tradition he lived from circa 565 to 485 BCE in an area which now
jewels in the Chintamani pattern, which also falls in folds between his lies on the border of India and Nepal. He was known as Siddartha
legs, his fifth large toe on each up-turned foot slightly splayed from the of the Sakya clan. The term ‘muni’ means holy man, ascetic, saint,
other grouped toes, seated on a double lotus base cast with cloud sage, and is also interpreted as benevolent, kind and charitable. Thus
motifs in the early Ming dynasty style beneath a beaded edge, all Sakyamuni means “The Benevolent Holy Man of the Sakya clan.”
under a thick gilding, no base panel.
6 1/2in (16.5cm) high In Mahayana Buddhism, which prevailed in China, Buddha Sakyamuni
was the fourth of a series of five Manjusri or earthly Buddhas and
$10,000 - 15,000 before his death he foretold the coming of the fifth earthly Buddha,
Maitreya.
十七世紀 鎏金銅佛坐像
For a larger lacquered wood figure bearing very similar facial features
particularly the strong triangular nose and also with the wide shoulders
preferred during the Kangxi era, see Sotheby’s, New York, Footsteps
of the Buddha: Masterworks from across the Buddhist World, 3
September 2013, lot 27.

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