Tibet, 14th century

This exquisite and finely cast sculpture depicts Maitreya, the bodhisattva of loving kindness and the Buddha of the future. He is seated in dhyanasana atop a double lotus base with his hands in dharmachakramudra, while two lotus blossoms rise up around his shoulders, the proper left flower supporting a kundika. He is adorned in finely beaded jewelry and a thin dhoti with intricately incised borders billowing around his legs. His top knot is secured by a five-foliate crown and topped by a stupa. His slightly tilted head and sensitively modeled facial features, accentuated by cold gold and pigment, give him a gentle welcoming demeanor.
The present sculpture displays the superior quality and elegance of Yongle imagery and the patina and facial features of the most masterful Tibetan works from the fourteenth century. The sensitively cast details and elegant modeling, in particular the proportions of the lotus base and the drapery of the skirt, are comparable to a Yongle period bronze in the Rietberg Museum in Zurich (H. Uhlig, On the Path to Enlightenment: The Berti Aschmann Foundation of Tibetan Art at the Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 1995, p.87, cat.no.42). Compare the sway of the body, and the design of the crown and jewelry with a bronze figure of Chaturbhuja Manjushri from the Tibet-Collection Gerd-Wolfgang Essen (U. von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong 1981, pp.476-477, cat.no.132E).