MAS.459

Description

Scope and content : F. II. iii. 2. Painted wooden panel with top cut to point. Against oval blue vesica bordered with pink and dark brown is standing Buddha or Bodhisattva fig., extremely well proportioned and slim-waisted. Pose easy and graceful. Head very Indian and not well placed on the neck, being thrust too far forward. Fig. has uṣṇīṣa but no ūrṇā; hair blue and figured with tight curls. R. hand is downwards by side, prob. holding something, but surface damaged; L. hand with palm to breast, fingers curled up. Fig. wears short plain loincloth. The otherwise nude body and limbs have designs painted on them in red outline. On middle is seated Buddha fig., another on R. breast; on front of R. shoulder a wheel-shaped flower, on each upper arm two billet-shaped objects, perhaps Pōthīs, and on each forearm a pigeon or parrot. Feet and legs bare. From the leg openings of loin-cloth seems to issue some gauzy, pleated material, which is drawn tight at about mid-thigh. Very little colour left, but flesh seems to have been pale pink. Nimbus (?) circular, pink, with red and pink borders; Padmāsana pink.