537 - A fine and rare gilt-lacquered bronze figure of the Buddha Paree

A fine and rare gilt-lacquered bronze figure of the Buddha Paree Thailand, Ayutthaya period, 16th c. H. 126 cm Standing in samabhanga on a plinth with both hands raised to chest level in the abhayamudra, wearing monastic garment including uttarasangha fastened around the waist with a belt and the samghati draped over both shoulders, bejewelled including a broad floral cast necklace decorated with a pendant, bracelets and armlets, his face displaying a serene expression with downcast eyes below arched eyebrows that run into the nose-bridge, smiling lips, elongated earlobes with pendeloque ear rings, his head topped with a high crown finely ornamented with various geometric and floral patterns. From an old private collection, acquired at the fair in Maastricht, De Blauwe Olifant, October 1992. Copy of the certificate available - The present standing Buddha belongs to a distinctive and enduring type of Thai Buddhist sculpture. Rigidly frontal and hieratic in bearing, the figure stands with both hands raised before the chest, the palms turned outward in the gesture of protection, abhayamudra, or with the fingers joined in the gesture of imparting wisdom, vitarkamudra. This unusual double-hand gesture appears to be a specifically Southeast Asian development, originating in the Mon-Dvaravati tradition of mainland Southeast Asia during the later first millennium. Adopted and further developed by their Thai successors, it became a favoured form of Buddha representation. The Buddha is adorned with an elaborate diadem characteristic of the later Ayutthaya period, surmounted by a prominent conical ushnisha conceived as a succession of diminishing tiers. Its form recalls the ceremonial umbrellas traditionally crowning Thai stupas and lends the figure an especially regal and monumental presence. The crowned Buddha, known in Thailand as Phra Chao Song Khruang ('a Lord Wearing Ornaments'), represents a significant departure from the conventional unadorned image of the Buddha, whose elongated earlobes allude to his renunciation of worldly wealth. Crowned and jewelled images of the Buddha enjoyed particular popularity in Southeast Asia, notably during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and again during the Ayutthaya period. Their iconography has traditionally been associated with the Jambupatisutta, in which the Buddha appears adorned in royal splendour in order to humble the proud King Jambupati; alternatively, such images have been interpreted as representations of Maitreya, the Buddha of the future, depicted in his present bodhisattva form.The present sculpture exemplifies the distinctive synthesis of Mon-derived iconographic traditions and the refined courtly idiom of Ayutthaya-period art, in which Buddhist sanctity and royal symbolism are brought together with remarkable visual authority.