A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF BUDDHA


SRI LANKA, KANDYAN PERIOD, 18TH CENTURYHimalayan Art Resources item no.61620 10 cm (4 in.) high
|斯里蘭卡 康提時代 十八世紀 銅鎏金佛坐像 The overall similarity of this meditating image of Buddha to an Anuradhapura-period sculpture made an approximate millennia before, speaks to the conservativeness of Sri Lanka's Buddhist tradition. Even before Buddhism was driven out of India, Buddhist communities in Southeast Asia looked to Sri Lanka for instruction in its 'purely' preserved Buddhism. However, as is so often the reason for stylistic changes in Buddha images, a different treatment of the robe is adopted as a new foreign ruler from South India strives to create a distinct dynastic identity in Sri Lanka's material culture (cf. Phoenix Art Museum, Guardian of the Flame, Phoenix, 2003, pp.41-9). The sculpture has unusually rounded folds in the robe, whereas they are typically thin and wavy, however an imperial image shows precedent (ibid., p.135). For further Kandyan examples of the sculpture's oval face and waisted base, see ibid., pp.137 & 157-8.ProvenanceDavid Bowden, London, 1990