A copper alloy figure of Buddha, Ancient Region of Gandhara, circa 6th century

Collection of Peng Kai-dong, alias Nitta Muneichi (1912-2006), acquired in the 1950s and 60s.

This rare figure is one of the small number of extant bronzes depicting Shakyamuni Buddha — perhaps less than two dozen in total — created in Gandhara. The Buddha is depicted standing in an elegant posture, tribhanga, with subtle movement of the hips and a slight flex of the right knee. His simple monastic robe, uttarasangha, is worn in the classical manner with a generous drape of the cloth falling in loose folds and a rounded neckline, a style synonymous with the Graeco-Roman inspired stone sculpture found throughout the Gandhara region. The Buddha’s hair is arranged in waves extending from the peaked hairline at the forehead, in a variant of the snail-curl style or concentric ringed style often associated with images of the Buddha from the region. The right hand is raised in abhaya mudra in common with the majority of bronzes from the group, and the left hand, now lost, may have extended forward holding a fold of the robe like others in the group, such as a standing Buddha sold at Christie’s New York, 20th March 2014, lot 1604. The rounded neckline of the robe compares with two of the earliest examples, see Ulrich von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, figs, 4E, 4I, where a deep V-shaped neckline is more common, ibid, 4A-D, 4G. Unusually, the Buddha is cast together with a broad petalled lotus pedestal reminiscent of early Swat Valley sculpture. Figures in this group that retain their original bases are commonly attached to separately cast tapering plinths, sometimes with lion paw feet.

The sculpture epitomises the Graeco-Roman sculptural style seen throughout the Gandhara region, the legacy of Alexander the Great’s invasion of Northern India (329-326 BCE) and subsequent contact with the Classical World. The naturalistic depiction of the Buddha’s robe with its irregular pattern of folds, sometimes described as resembling the Roman toga, defines Gandhara sculpture of the Buddha and is more or less consistent throughout the region. The style is distinct from the Kushan and Gupta traditions in Mathura where the Buddha’s robes are either diaphanous and cling to the body, or with folds of cloth arranged in a more or less symmetrical pattern.

Three other Gandharan copper alloy figures of Shakyamuni Buddha from the Nitta Group collection were included in the exhibition Jintong fo zaoxiang tezhan tulu / The Crucible of Compassion and Wisdom: Special Exhibition Catalogue of the Buddhist Bronzes from the Nitta Group Collection at the National Palace Museum, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1987, cat. nos. 1, 3 and 4. The first of these, depicting Buddha seated in a yogic posture, was given by Nitta Muneichi to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession no. 2003.593.1.

This selection of Buddhist bronze figures emanates from the collection of Nitta Muneichi (1912-2006), who was born in Taipei as Peng Kai-dong, but left Taipei for Japan as an adolescent and later took on a Japanese name. He became a highly successful businessman with a company covering a wide range of different industries. After the Second World War, he opened an antique shop on Ginza in Tokyo and in 1950 he began collecting Buddhist bronzes, which eventually became his main collecting interest. An exhibition of his collection was held at the National Palace Museum, Taipei in 1987 (The Crucible of Compassion and Wisdom). In 2003 he donated 358 Buddhist bronzes from East, Southeast and South Asia to the National Palace Museum, which exhibited them in 2004, including a similar standing Acuoye Avalokiteśhvara (The Casting of Religion. A Special Exhibition of Mr. Peng Kai-dong’s Donation, cat. no. 161). A further donation of forty-eight pieces was made after his death. The superb Dali gilt-bronze seated figure of Avalokiteshvara, Acuoye Guanyin, formerly in the Nitta collection, was sold in our Hong Kong rooms from the collection of Sir Joseph Hotung, 8th October 2022, lot 10 for a record price.