Untitled

Unknown

16th century · Copper alloy with gilding · Asian Art

This majestic Buddha is one of the finest products of sixteenth-century Sri Lankan Buddhist art. The figure is seated on a lotus-vine pedestal, deep in meditation. Numerous auspicious marks (lakshana) on his body signify his Buddhahood. Convention dictates thirty-two mahapurusalakshana and eighty lesser marks, such as the forehead mark (urna), flame protuberance (ushnisha), extended earlobes and locks of hair, and lotuses on the hand and feet.

Artist

Unknown

Date

16th century

Medium

Copper alloy with gilding

Culture

Sri Lanka. western regions

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Purchase, Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Foundation Fund; Florence and Herbert Irving, Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Anne H. Bass Gifts, 2010