A FINE AND RARE WOOD FIGURE OF BUDDHA SHAKYAMUNI

Description:

China, Northern Song dynasty, ca. 11th c.
H. 29,5 cm
Seated with his legs crossed on a plinth, his right hand stretched to the front in tarjanimudra while the left is resting elegantly on his left knee, wearing monastic garment including an underskirt pleated around his middle and a wide-sleeved mantle covering both shoulders falling down in large pleats over body and legs, his face displaying a serene expression with downcast eyes below arched eyebrows running into the nose-bridge, smiling lips, elongated earlobes and the hairdo composed of large and partly wavy curls continuing into the ushnisha and set with a ratna, traces of pigment.
Old German private collection, acquired before 1989 - Cf. a similar figure on a pedestal published A & J Speelman 'Oriental Sculpture & Works of Art', London 1999, no. 6, pp. 14 and 15 - A radiocarbon C14 analysis confirms the dating - Right hand replaced, minor damages due to age