A rare limestone fragment of Maitreya

Description:

China, Northern Wei Dynasty, 6th cent.
H. 35 cm
Sitting on a throne in the European manner, the feet crossed, the right hand in abhayamudra, the left broken, dressed in a robe consisting of a petticoat and a cloak covering both shoulders, tied together at the front with a ribbon;The figure is dressed in a robe consisting of a petticoat and a cloak covering both shoulders, which is knotted together at the front with a ribbon, falls in regular folds along the legs and is flanked by a pair of loincloths, mounted on a velvet stand.
An old Bavarian private collection, collected since the 1960s, this sculpture acquired at Neumeister, München, auction 204, 23.9.1981, lot 788 (original invoice preserved)
The Northern Wei dynasty was a time of political turbulence and intense social and cultural change. It was believed that the messianic figure of Maitreya would return to earth to preach the Dharma after the teachings of the historical Buddha had been forgotten in those troubled times, and to bring a new Ära of peace. The popularity of Maitreya among Buddhist men inspired captivating images in various poses. One format shows his right leg crossed over his left knee, right arm raised, with one hand touching the cheek of his head tilted slightly in the same direction, as documented on the Maitreya stone sold at Bonhams New York on 19 March 2018, lot 8028. A second variant of the format shows the figure of Maitreya with legs crossed at the ankles and head tilted slightly downwards, resting on the hand of the raised left arm: see the dark grey stone Maitreya, characteristic of the Longmen halls in Henan and dated to the early sixth century, from the collection of the Albright Knox Gallery, sold at Sotheby's, New York, 19th century. to 20 March 2007, lot 503 (59cm). In the third form, represented by the Alsdorf Maitreya, the legs remain crossed at the ankles, but the right hand is raised outwards in a gesture of reassurance. However, there is disagreement as to whether this pose is limited to Maitreya. Denise Patry Leidy discusses the problem in connection with two majestic painted sandstone images from late 5th century halls in Yungang, Shanxi: the larger image from hollow 25 (146.1 cm. ) with a seated Amitabha Buddha in front of his crown, who is probably the bodhisattva Guanyin, while the undecorated crown on the somewhat smaller picture possibly means Maitreya (cat. no. 3b, 129.5 cm high): see Denise Patry Leidy and Donna Strahan, Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2010, pp. 53-56. A dark grey bodhisattva, also in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (39.190, Fletcher find), with a similar pose to the Alsdorf figure but seated between two lions, is however considered to be a possible Maitreya, dated to the early sixth century and probably from the Guyang cave in the Longmen complex (see p. 169, cat. no. A2). Also noteworthy is the seated Bodhisattva in the collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (B60S573, The Avery Brundage Collection, h. 57.8 cm), originally published by René-Yvon Lefebvre d'Argencé in Chinese, Korean and Japanese Sculpture in the Avery Brundage Collection, Tokyo, New York, and San Francisco, 1974, pp. 94-95, cat. no. 35.No. 35. The photographs now available on the website, however, show both the thinness of the relief and the reinforcement on the reverse of some fragments, comparable to the Alsdorf sculpture and other examples documented in the Longmen Stables in the early 20th century - Partly damages due to age, minor restorations