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Seated Buddha
Seated Buddha

Seated Buddha

Place of OriginThailand; former kingdom of Sukhothai, former kingdom of Sukhothai
Date1350-1450
MaterialsBronze with traces of lacquer and gilding
DimensionsH. 35 in x W. 25 in x D.13 in, H. 89 cm x W. 63.5 cm x D. 33 cm
Credit LineGift from Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's Southeast Asian Art Collection
Object number2006.27.21
DepartmentSoutheast Asian Art
ClassificationsSculpture
On View
Not on view
Text Entries

People in Thailand think of certain Buddha images from the medieval Sukhothai kingdom as the most beautiful in the realm.

This particular Sukhothai Buddha, though, used to strike me as mediocre. I'd never seen it under good display conditions, but only in a storeroom at the wrong height on a rolling cart under fluorescent lights. Wrong height and wrong light can be killers, especially for sculpture.

This discussion of the relative beauty of Buddha images is off track from a religious point of view. Theoretically all Buddha images are equally perfectly beautiful. What they represent is not the appearance of an individual but the incomparable beauty of the Buddha's doctrine, or of buddhahood in the abstract.

- FMcG ("Gorgeous" exhibition)