Seated Buddha

Like most bronze Buddha images, this one was originally covered with lacquer and then gilded. At some point the gilded lacquer was scraped off, presumably because it had begun to flake and was deemed unsightly, but traces remain in protected places such as the insides of the folds of the robe and under the ears.

This image, with its naturalistic drapery, is of a type usually associated with Mandalay in the period when it was the capital of Burma (1857- 1885). In earlier Buddha images from Southeast Asia the monastic robes are usually shown as smooth, without folds. The artists who made them displayed little interest in either the ripples of the robes or the way they fall and gather around the body.

Images of this type are still made; their popularity evidently has remained constant since the mid-1800s.