A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF BUDDHA


SRI LANKA, LATE ANURADHAPURA PERIOD, 8TH CENTURY4 in. (10.1 cm) high
|斯里蘭卡 阿努拉德普勒時代晚期 八世紀 佛陀銅像 This still Sri Lankan bronze from the Late Anuradhapura period (432-1017 CE) depicts Buddha seated in meditation with an inner quality of transcendent assuredness. Lerner wrote of such bronzes, "The finest Sinhalese art dates to the Anuradhapura period. Unfortunately, relatively few bronze sculptures from this period have survived, and those extant must be considered precious evidence of a once glorious past." (Lerner, The Flame and the Lotus, New York, 1984, pp.46-7, no.13). Because of a number of details incorporating the Gupta aesthetic of Northeastern India, including the sensuous treatment of Buddha's shoulders and waist, this Anuradhapura bronze is an especially rare and early example, demonstrating changes in Buddha's depiction, descending from the lands of his birth, through the art of the Deccan and South India to Sri Lankan shores. The extraordinary art of the Gupta Empire, spreading across North India and as far as Andhra Pradesh in South India between the 4th and 6th centuries, had a tremendous and lasting impact on Buddhist sculpture throughout Asia, Sri Lanka being no exception. Compare, for instance, a 6th-7th century Northern Indian bronze in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1987.218.2). Like this Northern Indian example, the present bronze demonstrates key features of the Gupta aesthetic including the figure's beautiful proportions, sloped shoulders, supple waist, bare right shoulder, sheer unpleated robe, interior quietude with downcast eyes. Rather than directly impacting the art of Sri Lanka, the Gupta aesthetic transitioned through the art of Andhra Pradesh, a region with close cultural and religious ties with Sri Lanka from the time of Amaravati (2nd century BCE – 3rd century CE). Such a connection can be observed from the Gupta characteristics displayed on a 7th-8th-century standing Buddha bronze from Andhra Pradesh in the British Museum (1905,1218.1). This Sri Lankan bronze's sensuous waist and interior stillness capture the Gupta aesthetic so successfully that it certainly dates to before the 9th and 10th centuries and is therefore likely to be among the earliest Late Anuradhapuran bronzes surviving in private hands. Whereas the majority of post-8th-century Sri Lankan bronze sculptures are solid cast, this sculpture is hollow cast, indicating an earlier date. Meanwhile, Listopad asserts that Sri Lanka's delightful flame crowning the ushnisha appears by the 8th century, at first in a diminutive scale like the present example. This informs the bronze's dating to the 8th century, but its close adherence to the Gupta style might make a dating of c.700 more appropriate. Published Phoenix Art Museum, Guardian of the Flame: Art of Sri Lanka, Phoenix, 2003, pp.73 & 82. Exhibited Guardian of the Flame: Art of Sri Lanka, Phoenix Art Museum, 8 February - 11 May 2003; The Cantor Art Center, Stanford University, 2 March - 12 June 2005; University of Virginia Art Museum, 21 January - 19 March 2006.ProvenancePrivate Collection, US, by 1957 Thence by descent