A very rare inscribed gilt bronze figure of Avalokitesvara China, Liao Dynasty, 10th /11th Century

seated rigidly upright in lalitasana with right leg pendent and left leg folded flat upon the upper plane of a high trapezoidal plinth, both hands resting gently upon the legs in a relaxed and unusually naturalistic manner with the rest of the body and face treated in stylised volumes, dressed with a shawl around the shoulders and long skirts falling in rippling folds around the base, adorned with thick armlets and necklaces studded with florets, with a long central rope of jewels falling from the apron and bisecting in ribbons at the base, the face with thin eyes, large nose and rounded smiling mouth cast beneath a broad flat forehead, below a looping topknot framed by a high crown set with Buddha Amitabha in dhyanasana upon a lotus flanked by large florets and scrolls, the rear of the base with long dedication and partially legible date, possibly reading Pusa ... er nian wu yue san ri ...

Reputedly from a private South-east Asian collection, from 1980s.

This Bodhisattva figure is remarkable for its elaborate jewellery and large size and unusual in its facial expression. Its main stylistic elements, such as the high crown, loops of hair protruding from under the crown at the forehead, and flower-decorated jewellery, are characteristic of Liao gilt-bronze sculpture; compare, for example, the smaller standing figure in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Ji Chong Jian, The Buddhist Bronzes, Taipei, 1994, pl.187 and p.15; and a larger standing figure from the collection of the Nitta Group, included in the exhibition The Crucible of Compassion and Wisdom, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1994, catalogue pl.90; also another larger standing figure in the Shanghai Museum, included in the exhibition Estátuas Budistas Milenárias da China: Colecção do Museu Xangai, Leal Senado, Macao, 1995 (30th entry in the catalogue), and published in Shanghai Museum: Ancient Chinese Sculpture Gallery, n.p., n.d., p.31 right.