A rare gilt copper-alloy figure of crowned BuddhaTibet, 15th centuryThe figure exquisitely cast seated in vajrasana, with the right hand reaching down towards the ground in bhumisparsha mudra, the left hand held gently in the lap in dhyana mudra, adorned in a simple dhoti with beaded and ring-punched hems, the serene face with a gentle smile beneath a high six-pointed tiara with Buddhas and inlaid with turquoise, the base unsealed, with scrolls within the interior. 27cm (10 5/8in) high.注脚十五世紀 銅鎏金寶冠佛像Provenance: a European private collection來源：歐洲私人收藏This figure may represent either Akshobhya, assuming it was part of a set of Five Presiding Buddhas, or Crowned Shakyamuni, assuming it was the central element of its ensemble. While Shakyamuni's renunciation of his royal birth makes it unlikely he would be represented with a crown, Bautze-Picron has explained the coalescence of Indian political, devotional, and philosophical developments that resulted in Shakyamuni's spiritual authority being emphasised with royal regalia by the end of the first millenium AD; see Bautze-Picron, The Bejewelled Buddha from India to Burma, New Delhi, 2010.Compare with a related but slightly earlier gilt-bronze figure of Buddha Vajradhara, 14th century, illustrated by A.Lutz, On the Path to Enlightenment: The Berti Aschman Foundation of Tibetan Art at the Museum Rietberg Zurich, Zurich, 1995, p.61, no.21.