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The bodhisattva Maitreya
Also titled De bodhisattva Maitreya
c. 200 - c. 300
- Medium
- gilding (material), slate (rock), dye
- Classification
- sculpture
- Dimensions
- height 52 cm x width 30 cm x depth 12 cm
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Credit line
- On loan from the Royal Asian Art Society in The Netherlands (schenking Vereniging Rembrandt, 1968)
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
About this work
Maitreya, the Buddha of the future, is making the abhaya mudra, or '˜fear not' gesture. His webbed fingers are a sign of his divine nature. This figure shows that Buddhist art in Gandhara, which was in contact via trade routes with regions around the Mediterranean Sea, was influenced by Greco-Roman sculpture. The drapery folds of the Maitreya's lower garment, for instance, recall Roman figures, while his hairstyle is based on representations of the Greek god Apollo.
