Finely cast standing in contrapposto on an integral lotus-petal base upon a square plinth, the right arm extended to the earth, the open palm exaggerated, the left hand grasping the hem of the robe.

Provenance: Steven Finkelman, The Buddha Gallery, California, USA, 2014. Michael Phillips, acquired from the above. Steven Finkelman is a retired social work service director with over 30 years of experience in collecting and selling Buddhist and Hindu sculpture. Michael Phillips (born 1943) is an Academy Award-winning film producer. Born in Brooklyn, New York, his parents were Lawrence and Shirley Phillips, noted New York dealers in Asian fine arts, selling to the Met, the LACMA, the Chicago Art Institute, and the British Museum among others. Michael Phillips is a collector of Asian art himself, particularly Indian, Southeast Asian, and Himalayan sculpture. His most important films include The Sting (winning the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1973), Taxi Driver (winning the Palme d’Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival), and Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age. Wear, minor dents, small nicks, light scratches, casting flaws, signs of weathering and erosion, losses.

Weight: 189.7 g
Dimensions: Height 11 cm

The present lot is characteristic of Indian art from the post-Gupta period. This small type of portable figure is thought to be one of the earliest kinds of Buddhist images to have been produced by local craftsmen, reflecting the spread of Buddhism throughout India and the rest of Asia after the 3rd century. We see this type of figure replicated in regional styles all the way out to Myanmar. It was even reported by the Chinese scholar Xuanzang (602-664), who traveled to India in the 7^th century, that the monks of India had small icons of Buddha in their quarters that they venerated with chanting, ritual bathing, and small offerings of incense and food. He identified these as a small group of metal standing Buddha figures.

The Ajanta Caves are approximately thirty Buddhist cave monuments dating from the second century BC to about 480 AD in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state in India. Textual records suggest that these caves served as a monsoon retreat for monks, as well as a resting site for merchants and pilgrims in ancient India. The caves include paintings and rock-cut sculptures described as among the finest surviving examples of ancient Indian art, particularly expressive works that present emotions through gesture, pose and form. They are universally regarded as masterpieces of Buddhist religious art. The caves were built in two phases, the first starting around the second century BC and the second occurring from 400 to 650 AD. They constitute ancient monasteries (Chaityas) and worship-halls (Viharas) of different Buddhist traditions carved into a 75-meter (246 ft) wall of rock. The caves also present paintings depicting the past lives and rebirths of the Buddha, pictorial tales from Aryasura's Jatakamala, and rock-cut sculptures of Buddhist deities. The patron and bronze founder of the present lot were clearly intimately familiar with the Ajanta site. In cave 4 for example, see a standing Buddha closely related to the present lot.

Literature comparison: Compare a related carved relief of a standing Buddha in Cave 19 at the Ajanta complex, taken by Henry Cousens around 1880, from the Archaeological Survey of India Collections. See Sarita Khettry, ‘Portable’ Images (Buddhist) from Gandhara, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 72, 2011, pp. 204-11. Compare also a related pillar painting in Cave 10. Compare a closely related figure, 11 cm high, dated 7^th-8^th century, at Galerie Hioco, June 24, 2019.