A SMALL GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF BUDDHA, TANG DYNASTY | 唐 鎏金銅佛坐像

Formerly in a French private collection. 

法國私人舊藏

The present figure holds the proper right hand in the abhaya mudra, a powerful gesture meant to dispel fear. The Historical Buddha is thought to have employed this gesture in the Jataka tale of Nalagiri charging Siddhartha. In the anecdote, the envious Devadatta plies the white elephant with alcohol and lets the beast loose in Siddhartha's path. The Buddha calms the raging elephant with a solemn raise of his hand. This particular mudra was often depicted by artisans from the Northern and Southern to Tang dynasties representations of the Buddha, a period when the Pure Land tradition became a prominent vehicle for the spread of Buddhism.

Compare two related examples, attributed to the Tang dynasty and on its original pedestal, illustrated in Saburo Matsubara, Chinese Buddhist Sculpture: A Study Based on Bronze and Stone Statues other than from Cave Temples, Tokyo, 1966, pls. 266d and 294a. See a similar example, attributed to the Tang period, sold in Sotheby's New York, 18th-19th March 2014, lot 176. Compare as well a figure still with its mandorla and further raised on a squared openwork base, in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and illustrated Hai-Wai Yi-Chen. Chinese Art in Overseas Collections. Buddhist Sculpture, vol.1, Taipei, 1986, pl. 81; and another, attributed to the 8th century, from the collection of Peng Kai-dong and now in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Lee Yu-ming and Chung Tzu-yin, Imprints of the Buddhas: Buddhist Art in the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, 2015, cat. no. 22.