Dobrovits Aladár szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 3-4. (Budapest, 1959)
HOPP FERENC KELETÁZSIAI MŰVÉSZETI MÚZEUM - Tibor Horváth: The new acquisitions of the Francis Hopp's Museum
3—4 cm., reaches the head of Buddha from the base, to check the cracking of the wood and which was used for holding the ,, precious gifts", the prayers or a written document of offering. From the latter, nothing was preserved. This hollowed out tube could be reached either through a 16x3,8 cm insertion in the middle of the back by lifting the cover, and also by a similar, but smaller one, 5,7x2 cm, whose cover is missing. The statue is covered with hemp cloths, coated with lacquer painted first green, then subsequently lighter coral and finally gilded. Not much has remained of the latter, but enough to show the excellent craftmanship and the first class quality of the gold foil. The curls of Buddha's head were formed of lacquer (deep cinnabar colour) painted on the surface in black, between the curls, ultramarine ("Fo-ch'ing"). The statue is in a much damaged condition, besides the missing arms, part of the legs are missing and has been substituted. A part of the left arm and a bigger piece of the back has been cut off — seemingly — with a disk of a lath. The right cheek and the chest has been partly repaired (the cracks were filled up and partly repainted). Our statue, in many respects, is very similar to the dated Buddha (from the year 1411) of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (A. Priest, Chinese Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1944. Cat. no. 75, pl. CXXYL). The folds of the robe, especially above the lap in threefold and the carving of feet are (as far as it is possible to compare the original with a book illustration) are as similar as being almost identical. Only the face of the Buddha in our Museum — a little longer shaped and seemingly more rounded — and the modelling of the chest — more protruding and altogether better shaped — are different. Because of these variations which could be interpereted as the sign of an earlier variation of the known prototype, we presumably should date this statue around 1400 or to the end of the 14th century. * 3. China. Pu-tai. "Gold bronze" statue (Fig. 6—7) H. 42 cm. Ming dynasty (1368—1644). Inv. no. 58.144. Purchased from a private collection. Heavy body, the head is sunken, bald head, low forehead, round face and small eyes. The eye-balls were originally marked by lacquer paint. The mouth is deeply incised shoving some teeth, the lips are smooth. The face, as a whole, has an animated expression. The ears are modelled in a simplified way, the lobes are very thick. Dimples help to accentuate the characteristic laughs of Pu-tai. The upper breast, below the nipples is doubled. The belly is round and protuberant, the navel marked with a point and a circle. His right hand is posed on the knee of the lifted leg. The left leg is stretched on the ground. The fingers of the left hand are closed with the exception of the little finger. The hands and feet are disproportionately small to the bulk of the body. The static posture is somewhat loosened by a slight heaviness of weight to the left, Pu-tai is dressed in a simple robe which is bordered in the front with an uneven edging. The folds of the sleeves are uneven, a sharper drawn line divides the flatter one from the rounder sections. The left thigh is flanked by a sack, an usual attribútum of his. This has a larger type parellel line covering
