A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF AVALOKITESHVARA MING DYNASTY, 16TH / 17TH CENTURY |

seated in rajalilasana, attired in a simple monk's robe with a floral-incised hem, swathed around the body and open at the chest, the blue-pigmented, curly hair crowned with a scrolled circlet centered by an ornament cast with Buddha Amitabha seated on a blossoming lotus, the face with traces of polychrome pigment with prominent black curling brows above the downcast eyes, a small mustache over the lips and with a long, narrow beard, the proper right hand holding a small cintamani jewel and resting on the raised right knee, the left hand lowered, holding a Buddhist text

The Chang Foundation Collection.

Jintongfo zaoxiang tulu/Buddhist Images in Gilt Metal, Taipei, 1993, pl. 67.

Compare a related figure from the collection of Robert E. Kresko, now in the Saint Louis Art Museum, obj. no. 3:2005, seated in the same manner, with similarly well-defined curling hair, wearing a scrolled circlet and holding a text in the form of a scroll, attributed to the Yuan or Ming dynasty. The Saint Louis figure has been described as an arhat, however the circlet shows traces of a loss to the scrolled center; it is possible an ornament containing Amitabha like that of the present figure was once attached, and is now missing. If not for certain iconographic features such as the Amitabha in the crown, the present figure might be taken for an interpretation of a foreign practitioner.