Detail View: The AMICA Library: Standing Figure, Probably a Bodhisattva

ASIA.1979.083

1998

Sculpture

Asian; Southeast Asian; Indonesian

Indonesian

Standing Figure, Probably a Bodhisattva

Full view

Shrivijayan style, 8th-9th century

700

899

Copper alloy

Indonesia, possibly Sumatra

H. 18 in. (45.7 cm)

Asia Society

New York, New York, USA

1979.083

Asia Society: The Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection

http://www.asiasociety.org

Shrivijaya was one of the greatest powers in Southeast Asia from the 7th through 9th centuries; inscriptions and other historical records suggest that it continued in some form until the 13th century. The city of Palembang on the island of Sumatra is generally accepted as the capital of Shrivijaya. The depiction of the locks of hair as a series of parallel ribbonlike lines suggests that this intriguing sculpture, tentatively identified as a standing bodhisattva, was made in Sumatra. In addition to the type of hair, this sculpture shares the large cylindrical bump at the top of the head that is seen in other sculptures believed to come from Sumatra. However, the thickness and rigidity of the legs, the lack of volume in the torso, the simplicity of the detailing, and the figure's strong features differentiate this piece from other Sumatran examples. A possible explanation for these differences may be a 9th- or 10th-century date for the piece. It is also possible that this sculpture was produced in an area of the Indonesian archipelago that is less well known than either Sumatra or Java; or it might be both provincial and later in date.

This sculpture has long been identified as an image of the Bodhisattva Maitreya, although the rationale for this identification is unclear. The headdress lacks a stupa, Maitreya's most frequently represented attribute. The identification might derive from the long hair that runs down the figure's back; this style of hair is often found on images of Maitreya and illustrates his origins as an ascetic figure in early Buddhist art. However, this feature alone does not provide enough evidence because long hair is also found on representations of other bodhisattvas, particularly works dating from the 7th through 9th centuries, when the bodhisattva-ascetic played an important role in Southeast Asian Buddhist imagery. The identification of this figure is further complicated by the disk that he holds in his back right hand, an attribute most commonly associated with the Hindu god Vishnu. However, similar wheel-shaped objects are also held by Buddhist attendant figures known as vajra deities. Because of the importance of Buddhism in Indonesia, it seems likely that this figure does represent a bodhisattva or some other Buddhist deity.

Asia Society. Handbook of the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection. New York: Asia Society, [1981], p. 40.

Lee, Sherman E. Asian Art: Selections from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd. New York: Asia Society, 1970, pp. 42, 45.

Lopez, Donald S., Jr., and Steven C. Rockefeller. Images of the Christ and the Bodhisattva. Middlebury, Vt.: Christian A. Johnson Memorial Gallery of Middlebury College, 1984, cat. no. 43.

Mowry, Robert D. 'An Image of Maitreya and Other Pre-Angkor Prakhonchai Bronzes.' Orientations (December 1985), p. 38.

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