The figure depicts Buddha as an infant, wearing a Chinese style apron. 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.'. Height 17.5 cm.
Wear, holes. Fingers missing.
Purchased at Crafoord Auction in Lund, Sweden, from the Collection of Jan Bäckman (1953-2012).
(Beal, 'Asvaghosa's Life of Buddha', in Sacred Books of the East, vol. XIX, Oxford, 1883, p. 226.) Reference for quote.