A gilt-copper alloy figure of Shakyamuni Buddha, Mongolia, 18th century | 蒙古 十八世紀 銅合金鎏金釋迦牟尼佛坐像

The Buddha is seated in vajraparyankasana on a double lotus base with his right hand in bhumisparsha mudra and holding a patra in the left. His diaphanous robes are decorated with finely incised floral-patterned hems. Stylistic features such as the tall, stepped pedestal with plain lotus petals, the distinctive modelling with broad shoulders and youthful face, and the characteristic gilded visvavajra on the pedestal sealing plate, are hallmarks of sculpture made after the great Mongolian hierarch and master artist Zanabazar (1635-1723). Compare a gilt Shakyamuni Buddha in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, with similar modelling, physiognomy, decorated robe hems, and stepped base with a gilded visvavajra on the sealing plate (with later modification), in Patricia Berger and Terese Tse Bartholomew, Mongolia: The Legacy of Chinggis Khan, Thames and Hudson, 1995, p. 80, fig. 5.