Raised Palm in Yellow Brocade

Viewing notes

A viewer's written impression — not a buyer review or first-hand record

This polychrome seated Buddha raises one palm in blessing. He sits in full lotus on a great lotus pedestal of gold and green, his topknot deep blue, his face a clear pale tone with lowered, smiling eyes and a golden swastika at his chest. His robe is a bright yellow brocade woven all over with roundels of flowers and dharma wheels, its borders dense with gold thread and a grey-green lining showing at the collar. The right hand stands upright before his chest, palm outward; the left steadies a golden lotus stem whose head carries a small vessel and an unopened bud. Below the throne runs a gilt lotus-petal apron and an octagonal wooden stand. Radiant and full, the figure sits like a settled pool of light — for the principal seat of a shrine, or to give a solemn room its bright keynote.