Page 6 - Avery Brundage Ancient Bronzes and Collecting Biography
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the infant Buddha Shakyamuni taking his first seven steps, with one hand pointing up
and the other pointing down (fig. 8.6), embodied his purchasing policy. 20
The rhinoceros was unique when Brundage bought it, and today, after sixty years of
new excavations, it still is. From the early Bronze Age there is no other vessel in the
shape of a rhinoceros. Animals of any kind were a distinct minority among bronzes pro-
duced in Bronze Age China. Among the limited few, those made in the Central Plain of
figure 8.6. Infant Buddha. Ming dynasty
(1644–1911). Gilt bronze, height 7 in. (17.8
cm). Avery Brundage Collection, Asian Art
Museum of San Francisco, B60B248.
206 Jay Xu
