Standing Buddha with Hand in Gesture of Teaching (<em>Vitarkamudra</em>)
Mon period, 8th century
- Medium
- Bronze
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- 52 × 15.1 × 12.4 cm (20 1/4 × 4 7/8 × in.)
- Culture
- Thailand
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Gift of Marilynn B. Alsdorf
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This bronze standing Buddha, attributed to the 8th-century Mon style of central Thailand, features a “wet garment” robe reflecting post-Gupta influences. The face displays classic Mon traits: rounded form, broad nose, and continuous arched eyebrows. Clockwise hair curls and three neck lines symbolize the “Great Man” in Buddhist iconography. The right arm is raised in a teaching gesture. Due to monument abandonment and sculpture displacement, linking this image to a specific site is difficult. Many bronzes from this era were lost or repurposed, making surviving examples rare.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
