G773.2 A MONUMENTAL DRY LACQUER BUDDHA HEAD

BURMA, TAI YAI (SHAN STATES)

18^TH – 19^TH CENTURY

H. 54 CMS, 21 ¼ INS.

A monumental gilded dry lacquer head of Buddha with a tranquil expression, with a conical usnisha rising to a lotus bud finial.

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 dry lacquer example, see cat. no. 51 in Sylvia Fraser-Lu, Burmese Crafts Past and Present, New York: O.U.P., 1994.

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 2000 from Ethnoarte Gallery, Milan