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A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF MAITREYA TIBET, 15TH/16TH CENTURY image 1
A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF MAITREYA TIBET, 15TH/16TH CENTURY image 2
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Lot 522
A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF MAITREYA
TIBET, 15TH/16TH CENTURY
Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art
21 March 2023, 18:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$25,500 inc. premium

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A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF MAITREYA

TIBET, 15TH/16TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no. 1409
5 1/4 in. (13.3 cm) high

Footnotes

西藏 十五/十六世紀 銅鎏金彌勒菩薩像

The placement of Maitreya's feet resting atop a square platform is a posture known as both bhadrasana (the auspicious pose) and pralambapadasana (legs extended posture). He interlocks both of his fingers in the gesture of exposition (dharmachakrapavartina mudra), awaiting for the prophesized moment when he will descend from his heavenly abode of Tushita and into the earthly realm of Ketumati to be the next Buddha.

Compare the figure's dignified features and elaborately decorated platform with two other Maitreya images, one from the Berti Aschmann collection in the Rietberg Museum (see Uhlig, On the Path to Enlightenment, 1995, pl. 39) and another with similar floral decorations published in van Alphen et Al., Cast for Eternity, 2005, pp. 200-1, no. 67.

Provenance:
Austrian-German Private Collection, formed between 1920-1952, by repute
Galerie Zacke, Austria, 28 April 1989, lot 38

Additional information