A bronze figure of Maitreya, Java, circa 9th century

Collection of George Sheridan (1923-2008), acquired in Paris, London and New York from the 1960s onwards, and thence by descent; a passion nurtured from his friendship with Professor Samuel Eilenberg (1913-1998), who donated his collection to the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 1987.

The standing figure depicts the bodhisattva Maitreya, the future Buddha, identified by the stupa placed in front of his tall chignon: compare the mudras of a 7th-9th century Indonesian standing bronze Maitreya with a stupa in the hair, see Martin Lerner and Steven Kossak, The Lotus Transcendent: Indian and Southeast Asian Art from the Samuel Eilenberg Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1991, cat. no. 130: compare also the style of the lotus pedestal and the simple halo of a mid-9th century Javanese standing Padmapani, ibid., cat. no. 136. This rare bronze figure is noteworthy for the tight curls of long matted hair, unusually depicted at the back of the shoulders, an indication of the bodhisattva’s ascetic nature while residing in Tushita Heaven before coming to earth as saviour.