A RARE GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF MAITREYA TIBET, 15TH CENTURY OR EARLIER

cast seated on a stepped rectangular base with a constricted band, the right arm bent with the hand held in varada mudra before the chest, the left lowered in bhumisparsa mudra with a water pot resting atop it, dressed in a robe draped over the left shoulder and gathering folds above the feet, the serene expression flanked by a pair of long pendulous earlobes and surmounted by tightly knotted hair and an ushnisha, with traces of engraved floral decoration on the edges of the robe, the base sealed and incised with a visvavajra

Polak Works of Art, TEFAF Maastricht, 2010.

The figure is in structurally good condition. As visible in the catalogue photo, there is extensive oxidisation to the surface and loss to the gilding. Minor casting imperfections and spacers.
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Maitreya is identified by the kundika water bottle in the Buddha’s lowered left hand, in conjunction with the seated posture of bhadrasana on a waisted pedestal. Tibetan images of this iconography with legs pendant and feet supported on a lotus flower often include identifying attributes such as the kundika or stupa, which firmly identify the Buddha of the Future, cf. Ulrich von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, p. 447, pl. 121D.

Early Kashmir and Nepalese bronzes depict a Buddha in bhadrasana with no attributes and these are commonly thought to represent the historical Buddha rather than Maitreya. There are no medieval eastern Indian depictions of this iconography. Early Chinese images of the Buddha in bhadrasana do not include attributes and are also often described as Buddha.

Tibet is maybe the only Buddhist culture to portray the Buddha of the Future in this manner, seated on a throne with legs pendant in bhadrasana. The majority of Tibetan images of Maitreya in this form are adorned with crown and jewellery and hands in dharmachakramudra, indicating his bodhisattva status and teaching in Tushita Heaven. The rarity of this image is the depiction of Maitreya as a Buddha with no bodhisattva attributes.

Although the gilding is worn and the surface corroded the image is gracefully poised, and the quality of sculpture is evident in the refined proportions, the elegantly draped cloth and in the finely engraved floral and geometric patterns of the robe edges which help to date the statue stylistically to around the fifteenth century, cf. the combined floral and geometric robe decoration of a fifteenth or sixteenth century Maitreya adorned with bodhisattva jewellery in the Berti Aschmann Collection, see Helmut Uhlig, On the Path to Enlightenment, Zurich, 1995, p. 84, pl. 39.

For another copper alloy figure of Maitreya preserved in Tibet, see the example in Khra'brug monastery, Yarlung valley, with engraved patterns on the robe, illustrated by Ulrich von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, Hong Kong, 2001, vol. 2, p. 1146, pl. 300A (fig. 1), where he assigns the figure to the 12th/13th century of the Tibetan Monastic Period. See also a Tang dynasty figure of Maitreya with closely related iconography in the Potala Palace, Lhasa, illustrated ibid., p. 1232, pl. 341A (fig. 2).