Page 206 - Sotheby's October 3 2017 Tantra Buddhost Art

THE BUDDHA OF THE FUTURE
A BEACON OF BRIGHTNESS IN A TURBULENT ERA
“The empire is in utter chaos. Maitreya Buddha has
incarnated, and the Manichaean King of Light has appeared in
this world.”
As the Yuan dynasty crumbled amidst famine, floods and
general unrest, the anti-Mongol slogan of Han Shantong,
Grand Patriarch of the White Lotus sect, was a call to arms
and rebellion. Central to Han’s belief structure was the idea
that Maitreya Buddha had finally manifested in the world
as the successor to Shakyamuni Buddha. Shortly after
his demise in 1351, Zhu Yuanzhan, originally a member of
the White Lotus sect, emerged as the leader of ethnic Han
Chinese rebelling against the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. In
1368, he proclaimed himself the Hongwu Emperor of the
newly established Ming dynasty, taking the dynasty’s name
from Han’s slogan.
This monumental bronze sculpture, which can be pinpointed
by radiocarbon dating of organic material in its core to
a period from the late Yuan to the Hongwu period, is an
outstanding legacy of this turbulent age. Magnificently cast
in the Udayana style, evoking the traditions of Buddhist art
from Gandhara, it is a work of extraordinary presence. Little
is recorded from this chaotic period, and so much of what
was created must have been destroyed or melted down, but
it seems likely that there was a heightened interest in the cult
of Maitreya Buddha at this time, reflecting the prevailing belief Magazine, vol. LV no. 3, 2005/6, pp. 22-32 (fig. 1) .
structures. This inspired the creation of large-scale figures
of Maitreya, of which this is a pre-eminent example. In the
Buddhist tradition, Maitreya is said to reside in the perfected
world of Tushita Heaven, but in the future age it is believed
that he will descend as teacher and saviour of an earthly
paradise known as Ketumati.
204 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比
The iconography of the sculpture places it in the rich historic
tradition of depicting Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future,
standing with hands held in abhaya and varada mudra, and
robed in a style known in China from the late fourth or early
fifth century as Udayana, where the Buddha’s outer garment
covers both shoulders and falls in stylised undulations.
The style is derived from the Buddhist sculpture of ancient
Gandhara and early Central Asian cultures, where images of
Buddha so successfully fused influences from the Hellenistic
world with the rich artistic tradition of Indian sculpture.
Udayana is the ancient name of an area thought to be
present-day Swat Valley, Pakistan, which was part of the
early Gandhara region. Buddhist images displaying robes with
pronounced folds, such as the colossal third or fourth century
sculptures once standing at Bamiyan, were accessible to
pilgrims via the Silk Road and the style thus found its way to
China. It is recorded that the Chinese traveller Faxian visited
this site sometime around the beginning of the fifth century.
Testimony to this migration of style is seen in the famous gilt-
bronze figure in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, dated 486
and identified by inscription as Maitreya, where the Buddha’s
hands are held in abhaya and varada mudra, with the robe
falling from the shoulders in stylised undulations, see Denise
Patry Leidy, Notes on a Buddha Maitreya sculpture dated 486
in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Oriental Art