A LARGE AND IMPORTANT PARCEL GILT-LACQUERED FIGURE OF SARIPUTRA

Description:

China, mid-Qing dynasty or earlier
H. 75 (91) cm
Standing elegantly in samabhanga with his feet slightly spread on a separate carved lotus base decorated with one row of broad wavy petals, his right hand formerly holding the mendicant staff, the left stretched in front of his chest, naked body parts cold lacquered, wearing various finely carved monastic garments including an underskirt flaring our at his feet, fastened around the waist with a belt, precisely painted in gold lacquer with several musters like different flowerhead specimen and clouds, its border painted with a geometric meandering design, the patchwork executed mantle draped over both shoulders falling down in large pleats over his body, a larger section covering his left arm, the border painted with a scrolling tendril pattern, his face displaying a serene expression with downcast painted eyes below arched eyebrows running into the nose-bridge, red coloured smiling lips, slightly puffy cheeks, elongated earlobes and a black lacquered shaven hairdo, the reverse with large rectangular relic cavity closed with three small wood pegs made of a different wood type.
Old Austrian private collection, assembled before 1990
It is rare to find Buddhist images carved from sandal wood. The earliest documented wood carvings are two sandalwood statues of Buddha, one with a 'shining pedestal' (over 90 cm. high) and the other with a 'translucent pedestal' (38 cm. high), bought back from India by the Tang dynasty pilgrim monk, Xuanzang (A.D. 629-645); for further reading, see Beal, S., The Life of Hinen-Tsiang, London, 1911, p. 213-4. Compare the facial features with a large gilt bronze figure of Sakyamuni, also bearing a Yongle mark, in the British Museum which was included in the exhibition Buddhism Art and Faith, illustrated by W. Zwalf (ed.), Catalogue, p. 2, no. 305. The author notes that the British Museum example can be closely related to images of the Buddha round on illustrated sutras of 14th and early 15th century, such as a Sino-Tibetan woodblock edition of the Suvarnaprabhasasutra, dated to A.D. 1419, and the Qsha Tripitaka, ibid., p. 304. Base later replaced in different wood. Minor wear, minor traces of age