Standing Buddha Maitreya

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Standing Buddha Maitreya

Dynasty Northern Wei Dynasty Chinese, 386 - 535

Place of OriginChina

Dateabout 530

Dimensions23 in. (58.4 cm)

Mediumgilded bronze

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott

Object number

1956.55

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 35

Collections

Sculpture

Published ReferencesToledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 23, repr. (col.).Exhibition HistoryAsia House Gallery, New York, Masterpieces of Asian Art in American Collections II, April 16-June 7, 1970, no. 27, repr.

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago; Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum, Light of Asia: Buddha Sakyamuni in Asian Art, 1984-85, no. 176, p. 310, repr.

Label TextElegant sculptures such as this were created as offerings to Buddhist temples and monasteries or placed on family altars to solicit spiritual and physical well-being for their donors. According to an inscription on the back of the mandorla, or body halo, this gilded bronze Buddha was commissioned and dedicated by members of the Lo family in the sixth century. Buddhism originated in India in the fifth century BCE. By the first century CE, it had reached China along the trade routes. This sculpture represents Maitreya, a Buddha of the future. He raises his right hand in a gesture of reassurance; his left hand makes a sign of charity. Swirling flames and lotus and honeysuckle flowers enrich the mandorla behind him. The swooping rhythms of the garments and the mandorla’s surface and shape establish an upward movement, which would have been intensified by candlelight flickering over the burnished bronze surface.