A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF BUDDHA


NORTHERN INDIA, GUPTA PERIOD, 6TH CENTURYHimalayan Art Resources item no.61619 5 cm (2 in.) high
|印度北部 笈多王朝 六世紀 銅佛坐像This small figure of Shakyamuni stems from the 'golden age' of Indian Buddhist art, the Gupta period (4th-6th century). It is closely related to bronzes found at Danesar Khera in Uttar Pradesh. Famous examples are in the British Museum (1969,0725.1), and the Rockefeller Collection at Asia Society, New York (1979.7). From the earliest representations of Shakyamuni in human form, his followers stress his mythic otherworldliness. It was in the Gupta period that features distinguishing him from ordinary humans, such as webbed hands and a cranial protuberance (ushnisha), were crystallized, to be repeated for centuries throughout Asia.ProvenanceGerry Mitchell, London, 2008