A large gilt-copper alloy figure of Shakyamuni Buddha, Tibet, 14th / 15th century

Swiss Private Collection, acquired in Geneva in 1993.

瑞士私人收藏，1993年得於日內瓦

This finely cast fire-gilded statue of Shakyamuni Buddha is depicted with downcast eyes, the urna inset with turquoise, hair in snail curls over a tall ushnisha, and dressed in a diaphanous robe, with hands in bhumisparsha mudra, and seated in vajraparyankasana on a double-lotus pedestal, the back of the base un-gilded and painted red according to Nepalese custom.

Compare the tall ushnisha and conical cintamani finial, the ears with horizontal lines above the extended lobes, the double hem of the robe decorated with ‘rice grain’ motif, and the prominent rounded nipple of a circa fourteenth century with the Tibetan Bhaishajyaguru Buddha, conservatively dated in Gerd-Wolfgang Essen and Tsering Tashi Thingo, Die Götter des Himalaya: Buddhistische Kunst Tibets, Munich, 1989, p. 33, pl. 1-10.