STANDING BUDDHA

THAILAND.

BANGKOK STYLE, RATANAKOSIN PERIOD.

19TH CENTURY.

H. (Overall) 158 CMS, 62 ˝ INS.

An elaborately cast gilded bronze figure of Buddha, standing on an octagonal stepped pedestal with both hands raised in abhayamudra (the gesture of ‘dispelling fear’), extensively jewelled and decorated with glass inlay, the earlobes long with upturned flourishes, the face meditative and serene beneath a removable tiered diadem terminating in a tapering finial.

For a related example from the Bangkok National Museum see fig. 78 in Rita Ringis (ed.), Treasures from the National Museum, Bangkok, Bangkok: National Museum Volunteers Group, 1995. For a second example from the Prasart Museum, Bangkok, see page 181 in S. Van Beek and L. Tettoni, The Arts Of Thailand, Hong Kong: Periplus Editions, 2000.

PROVENANCE: Private German collection. Purchased from Galerie L. Hartl Klassische Asiatika, Munich.