A rare limestone hand of Buddha China, Tang Dynasty, 8th - 10th Century

superbly carved slightly larger than life-size, the left hand depicted with third and fourth fingers curled down to secure a large teardrop jewel or pearl against the palm, with the remaining fingers and thumb held upright, the fleshy volumes and sharp nails beautifully modeled and the dense grey stone painted thickly overall in white and flesh pigments with traces of gilding (stand)

The identifying mudras of Buddhas and bodhisattvas were frequently damaged in attempts to dis-empower the divine images during anti-Buddhist purges that occured periodally throughout the turbulent history of many of these images. In time, stone hands of these images were preserved as symbols of identity and power in their own right, particularly if they were of monumental size. Compare a right hand in abhaya mudra, now in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated Lefebvre-d'Argence, Chinese, Korean and Japanese Sculpture in the Avery Brundage Collection, Japan, 1974, no.91, as well as a pair of monumental hands of an arhat, from the Longmen caves, formerly in the Essayan Collection, sold Christie's Paris, 26 November 2002, lot 189.