A gilt bronze sculpture of a man seated with one hand raised.
front Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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front Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

The gilt bronze sculpture is of a man sitting upright and cross-legged on a tall, decorated throne. He is facing the viewer. He is clothed in a robe that drapes diagonally across his body. The robe covers his left shoulder, left arm, legs, and feet. His hair is a bun on top of his head. His left hand rests on his lap and his right hand is bent upright in front of him, palm facing the viewer. There is light wear.

Gallery Text

Merchants trading in Silk Road goods, South and Central Asian Buddhist proselytizers, and pilgrims who had traveled to India to study Buddhism at its source brought countless paintings, scriptures, and small bronze sculptures to China and Tibet. These later served as the inspirations for works commissioned by local patrons. Few early Chinese and Tibetan bronze sculptures, and even fewer Indian prototypes, survive, as later generations melted them down to make coins, weapons, or new icons. The fine statues on display here may have been objects of devotion that were set in portable shrines, like the Korean example in the case to the right, for worship in lay people’s homes.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.53.59
Title
Buddha in Abhaya-mudra Seated on a Lion Throne
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
figurine, sculpture
Date
dated 484
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Northern Wei, 386-534
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/204004

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1610, Buddhist Sculpture, Buddhism and Early East Asian Buddhist Art
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Gilt bronze
Dimensions
H. 37.0 x W. 16.0 x D. 11.5 cm (14 9/16 x 6 5/16 x 4 1/2 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Grenville L. Winthrop, New York (by 1943), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.53.59
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Hugo Munsterberg, Buddhist Bronzes of the Six Dynasties Period, Artibus Asiae (1946), Vol. IX, fasc. 4, pp. 296-297, pl. 7
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), no. 064, pp. 74-75
  • W. Chie Ishibashi, "East Asian Buddhist Bronzes: A Comparative Analytical Study and a Preliminary Report" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, August 1977), Unpublished, passim
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no.18, p. 25
  • Leopold Swergold, Thoughts on Chinese Buddhist Gilt Bronzes (n.p., 2014), p. 22, ill. p. 23

Exhibition History

  • S425a: Chinese Gilt Bronze Sculpture, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 10/20/1985 - 04/30/2008
  • Re-View: S228-230 Arts of Asia, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 05/31/2008 - 06/01/2013
  • 32Q: 1610 Buddhist Art I, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Collection Highlights
  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu