Lot 95. A gilt-bronze standing figure of Shakyamuni Buddha, Unified Silla Dynasty (8th - 9th century); 6 ½ in. (16.5 cm.) high. Estimate USD 30,000 - USD 40,000. Price realised USD 56,250. © Christie's Images Ltd 2016

Cast in the front with drapery falling from the chest to ankles in u-shaped folds and with a pair of elongated folds below the waist to indicate the legs of the figure; the back hollow with two pegs at the edges of the shoulders. With wood box.

Literature: Yamato Bunkakan, ed., Tokubetsuten higashi ajia no kondobutsu airashiki hotoketachi--Chugoku Kankoku Nippon (Special exhibition of gilt-bronze Buddhist sculptures of East Asia--Appealing Buddhist sculptures of China, Korea and Japan), exh. cat. (Nara: Yamato Bunkakan, 1999), pl. 44.

Exhibited: Yamato Bunkakan, Nara, "Tokubetsuten higashi ajia no kondobutsu airashiki hotoketachi--Chugoku, Kankoku, Nippon" (Special exhibition of gilt-bronze Buddhist sculptures of East Asia--Appealing Buddhist sculptures of China, Korea and Japan), 1999. 10.2--11.14

Note: The Unified Silla period from the late seventh through the ninth centuries was one of political stability when an international style held sway throughout East Asia. This shakyamuni shown here was cast with an entirely open back which is a characteristic of the later part of the Unified Silla period gilt-bronze figures.

Christie's. An Inquiring Mind: American Collecting of Japanese and Korean Art, New York, 15 April 2016