An inscribed gilt bronze figure of Maitreya, Buddha of the Future China, Northern Wei dynasty, dated AD 473

with right hand in abhaya mudra and the left hand bent up against his chest, dressed in long robes cast in rippling folds over the body and thrown over the left shoulder, with an unusually naturalistic swing to the unevenly lifted hems of the robe, against an integral leaf-shaped mandorla cast with an aureole of radiating lappets and a border of combed curling flames, all upon a circular base of pendent lotus lappets and a high pedestal with flared corner legs inscribed at the rear

The inscription can be translated 'On the 21st day of the third month in the third year of Yanxing in the Great dynasty, the disciple Wang Dongyi made this image of Maitreya for his late father and mother.' The date refers to a year in the Northern Wei period, equivalent to AD 473.

The almost abstract pattern of flames on the mandorla and the highly stylized garment folds are very typical of Northern Wei sculpture, as is the gesture, with the left hand clutching the robe. A similar figure dated in accordance with AD 485, from the collection of the Nitta Group, is illustrated in Matsubara Saburo, Chûgoku bukky?chôkoku shiron, Tokyo, 1995, vol.1, pl.76a; and was included in the exhibition The Crucible of Compassion and Wisdom, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1987, catalogue pl.59.