G773.1 AN IMPOSING GILDED WOOD SEATED BUDDHA

BURMA, TAI YAI (SHAN STATES)

18^TH -19^TH CENTURY

H. 76 CMS, 30 ½ INS.

An imposing gilded wood Buddha seated in bhumisparsimudra (earth-touching mudra) on a tall pedestal, his face with a tranquil expression, a domed usnisha rising to a lotus bud finial, with extensive gilding, black and red lacquer, the reverse with a cavity for relics.

Burmese Buddha images of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were made of bronze, wood, alabaster, dry lacquer and papier-mâché and are found in one of three positions: seated cross legged in bhumisparsimudra (earth-touching mudra), standing with hands raised or by his side, and lying on his right side in the parinirvana position.

For a closely related wood example, cat. no. P.338. p. 398 in S. Lopetcharat, Myanmar Buddha: The Image and Its History, Bangkok: Siam International Books Co. Ltd, 2007. For a similar Buddha in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, please see cat. no. 31 in Forrest McGill (ed.), Emerald Cities: Arts of Siam and Burma, 1775-1950, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 2009.

For more on wood and lacquer Buddhas from this period, see Sylvia Fraser-Lu, Buddha Images from Burma, Part III: Wood and Lacquer, Arts of Asia, May-June 1981.

Provenance: From a private collection in Milan.

Purchased in 2015 at Capitolium Art auction no.193.