A grey limestone seated figure of Maitreya Buddha - Northern Wei dynasty, Longmen Caves

The figure deftly carved seated with legs crossed at the ankles, the folds of the thin dhoti cascading down the edge of the base and its legs in a series of rhythmic folds, slender torso with tapered waist, the elongated earlobes and the tall flaring crown framing the slightly bulging eyes gazing down in contemplation below arched brows issuing from the curve of the broad nose, all above the full lips drawn in a tender smile, stand. 43.3cm (17in) high. (2). Estimate: £60,000 - 80,000

Provenance: Mathias Komor, New York, C 46.
A North American university museum collection.
Christie's New York, 21 September 2000, lot 188.

The grey stone was originally part of a wall fragment in the Longmen caves, located south of Luoyang in Henan province, where it has been suggested that related examples would have stood in niches along the northern wall of the Guyang cave. Figures such as the present example, are identified as Maitreya Buddha, the successor of the historic Sakyamuni Buddha. A very similar example of Maitreya Buddha seated with ankles crossed and with the left hand resting on a guardian lion is found in the Museum Rietberg, Zurich, as illustrated by O. Sirén, Chinese Sculptures in the von der Heydt Collection, Zurich, 1959, Catalogue no. 11. Another depiction of Maitreya Buddha from Longmen, similarly seated but cradling its cheek in a pensive posture, in the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, was illustrated by Andrew C. Ritchie, Catalogue of the Paintings and Sculpture in the Permanent Collection, Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, 1949, p. 212, no. 209. It was subsequently sold at Sotheby's New York, March 20 2007, lot 503, alongside the renowned archaic bronze fangjia (lot 507). As with the current lot, the fangjia was also purchased from Mathias Komor who was the leading dealer in Chinese art in New York in the post-war period and assisted in the formation of major institutional and private collections.

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Bonhams. Fine Chinese Art, 12 May 2008. New Bond Street