A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF INFANT BUDDHA CHINA, CIRCA 17TH CENTURYA GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF INFANT BUDDHACHINA, CIRCA 17TH CENTURY Himalayan Art Resources item no. 4720 19 cm (7 1/2 in.) high 中國 約十七世紀 銅鎏金誕生佛像This endearing figure depicts Buddha as an infant, wearing a Chinese style apron with an incised lotus flower. The left hand pointing to the heavens and his right pointing to the earth, the iconography refers to the moment when the newborn Buddha announced: 'This birth is in the condition of a Buddha; after this I have done with renewed birth: now only am I born this once, for the purpose of saving all the world.' (Beal, 'Asvaghosa's Life of Buddha', in Sacred Books of the East, vol. XIX, Oxford, 1883, p. 226.) Compare to a closely related example at the National Palace Museum, Taipei (Li (ed.), Imprints of Buddhas, Taipei, 2015, pp. 29-30, pl. 3). Also see Wang (ed.), Zangchuan fojiao jintong foxiang tudian [Encyclopedia of Sino-Tibetan gilt-bronze Buddhist figures], Beijing, 1996, p. 363, pl. 346.Provenance: Private Paris Collection