A silver and copper-inlaid copper alloy figure of Shakyamuni Buddha, Kashmir, 7th / early 8th century

Collection of Peng Kai-dong, alias Nitta Muneichi (1912-2006), acquired in the 1950s and 60s.

Jintong fo zaoxiang tezhan tulu / The Crucible of Compassion and Wisdom: Special Exhibition Catalogue of the Buddhist Bronzes from the Nitta Group Collection at the National Palace Museum, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1987, cat. no. 12.

The eyes and urna of this rare and finely cast copper alloy figure of Buddha are inlaid with silver, and both the upper and lower lips are inlaid in copper to enhance a naturalistic physiognomy. Copper also delineates the Buddha’s inner robe that is visible at the chest and below the outer robe at the ankle, with the copper indicating the contrasting colour of the dyed cloth. The eyes of the reclining lions in the throne are also inlaid with silver. Traces of gold paint on the Buddha’s face, ears, neck, arms, hands and feet indicate Tibetan ritual practice, and the Buddha is likely to have been taken from Kashmir for safekeeping in Tibet before the destructive Muslim raids that put an end to Buddhism in Kashmir around the thirteenth century.

The Buddha is seated with legs pendant in bhadrasana. Both hands make the teaching gesture, dharmachakra mudra, while the left holds a gathered hem of the robe. The iconographic posture of bhadrasana in combination with the dharmachakra mudra is often thought to indicate Maitreya. However, this specific iconographic composition appears in 5th–6th century Gandhara and western Deccan sculptures that depict seated bhadrasana teaching Buddhas flanked by standing figures of the bodhisattvas Maitreya and Avalokiteshvara, see Gandhara: The Buddhist heritage of Pakistan, Mainz, 2008, pp 246-8, figs 8 and 9. The iconography of the teaching Buddha with Maitreya and Padmapani is maintained in the greater Kashmir region, seen in a Patola Shahi group in the Pritzker Collection dated 714, see John Siudmak, The Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Ancient Kashmir and its Influences, Leiden, 2013, pl. 146. The inclusion of Maitreya as an attendant in these groups confirms the iconographic identify of the Nitta example as the teaching Buddha. An associated, possibly later, separately cast floral aureole attaches to the lug at the back of the Buddha, and depicts Maitreya on the left and Padmapani on the right, with Amitabha above and a stupa at the apex.

The Buddha’s throne cushion is decorated with roundels that reproduce post-Sasanian textile designs; see ibid., p. 321. Compare also the cushion designs of early eighth century Kashmir Buddhas, ibid., pl. 147, including one featuring lions of identical posture of the lions with crossed paws on the Pritzker Buddha dated 714, ibid., pl. 146.

The iconography relates to Shakyamuni Buddha's first sermon at Mrigadava deer park at Sarnath, where he set in motion the Wheel of Dharma: the episode is personified in the dharmachakra hand gesture. Compare an eighth century Kashmir bhadrasana Buddha in dharmachakra mudra photographed in 1908 at Bardan monastery, Ladakh, in Rob Linrothe, Collecting Paradise: Buddhist Art of Kashmir and its Legacies, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art and Rubin Museum of Art, 2014, p. 10, fig. o.8.

The Nitta bronze conveys the very essence of the classical period of Kashmir sculpture that was to become such an influence on the art of the western regions of Tibet in the eleventh century, where foreign works from the homelands of Buddhism were highly prized. The eleventh century royal Tibetan monk Nagaraja collected a large number of Kashmir bronzes including the renowned tenth century standing Buddha now in the Cleveland Museum, see Siudmak, op. cit., pl. 226. The Nitta Buddha's lustrous metal and silver-inlaid almond-shaped eyes are features that became standard in West Tibetan bronzes inspired by the great art of Kashmir.

This selection of Buddhist bronze figures emanates from the collection of Nitta Muneichi (1912-2006), who was born in Taipei as Peng Kai-dong, but left Taipei for Japan as an adolescent and later took on a Japanese name. He became a highly successful businessman with a company covering a wide range of different industries. After the Second World War, he opened an antique shop on Ginza in Tokyo and in 1950 he began collecting Buddhist bronzes, which eventually became his main collecting interest. An exhibition of his collection was held at the National Palace Museum, Taipei in 1987 (The Crucible of Compassion and Wisdom). In 2003 he donated 358 Buddhist bronzes from East, Southeast and South Asia to the National Palace Museum, which exhibited them in 2004, including a similar standing Acuoye Avalokiteśhvara (The Casting of Religion. A Special Exhibition of Mr. Peng Kai-dong’s Donation, cat. no. 161). A further donation of forty-eight pieces was made after his death. The superb Dali gilt-bronze seated figure of Avalokiteshvara, Acuoye Guanyin, formerly in the Nitta collection, was sold in our Hong Kong rooms from the collection of Sir Joseph Hotung, 8th October 2022, lot 10 for a record price.