A Painted White Marble Figure of Buddha, Tang Dynasty (618-907)

A Painted White Marble Figure of Buddha, Tang Dynasty (618-907)

Shown seated in padmasana with right hand raised in abhaya mudra, wearing layered robes falling in graceful folds around the body, the face carved with crisp features set in a gentle expression, and the hair and usnisa carved with curls, with traces of red, white, blue and green pigment. 18½ in. (47 cm.) high. Estimate $60,000 - $80,000

唐 彩繪大理石雕佛坐像

Provenance: Acquired prior to 1978.

Notes: Stylistically the present figure closely relates to a larger (81.3 cm.) limestone Buddha from Shaanxi province, with inscription dating to 639, illustrated by O. Sirén, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, vol. 2, Bangkok, 1998 ed., pl. 365. On both examples the Buddhas are clad in simple robes exposing the chest and are seated in padmasana on similarly draped pedestals with right hands in abahya mudra. Both figures also share in common a broad face with crisply rendered features beneath the tight whorls of hair and pronounced usnisa.

Also compare a similar, though smaller (35 cm.) Tang dynasty marble figure of Buddha posed in similar fashion on a draped pedestal base, illustrated in Zui Tou no Bijutsu, Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, 1976, p. 44, no. 3-42.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Art From The Arthur M. Sackler Collections. 18 March 2009  New York, Rockefeller Plaza www.christies.com Image Christie's Ltd 2009