A rare and large gilt bronze figure of a Bodhisattva China, mid Tang Dynasty, 7th - 8th Century

seated in lalitasana with left leg pendent upon a lotus flower, the right leg drawn up amid the long draped folds of the wide skirts as if cascading over a high pedestal, with a bare torso, plump belly yet narrow waist, all adorned with armlets and a jeweled pectoral, leaving one hand elegantly raising a large jewel aloft and the other resting on the knee, the large head with meditative expression, the hair dressed in a high chignon secured with triple-foliate tiara but for two long tresses falling over the shoulders (stand)

By the middle period of the Tang dynasty, a series of gilt bronzes are known intended to be matched with separate lotus bases; with the figures cast in relatively shallow volumes as if sitting over a ledge, or with skirts falling over the peaked petals of a lotus throne. Compare a similar figure with head of similarly large proportions and related tiara of three detached panels, illustrated by Matsubara Saburo, Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, Tokyo, 1966, pl.269 (a) & (b), as well as another bodhisattva with pendent foot resting upon a lotus, pl.288 (a)-(c). The details of headdress and jewelry, as well as the proportions of the body and head, appear also related to those of a standing figure from the collection of Grenville Winthrop, now in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, illustrated in Hai-Wai Yi-Chen. Chinese Art in Overseas Collections. Buddhist Sculpture I, Taipei, 1986, pl.100.