Stone Buddhist Painted Bronze, Help please.

Hi Everyone,

I bought this guy at an auction. He's 24cm tall and weighs 4kg. He is some type of stone and is painted bronze. You can see the stone where the paint has chipped. Is this just a hobbyist piece? Has someone just bought a statue from Alibaba and painted it bronze? Why did they paint the bottom? So many questions.

And....the reason I bought him was because I thought his face was really interesting, can anyone tell me what he is? Obviously Buddhist, some type of monk. I don't think he's Chinese, maybe Tibetan in style? Is that some type of cap he's wearing, is it just bad hair? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

 

Pretty clearly cast stone (i.e. mortar), and not carved stone. So made in a mold and not handmade, and fairly recent, so decorative value only. What did they tell you at the auction?? Looks like a modern sculpture to me, but that is not an informed opinion. @Any Jewelry can probably tell you more about where and when the original sculpture would have been made.

 

Thanks Jeff. It was just listed as a meditating Buddhist figure. I asked the auctioneer if he knew more about it and he didn't but said he thought it came from a house clearance.

 

A lot of the ones I came across had that Eddie Munster hairline.

But not the "divot" on the skull

 

I think he is Western made, of a meditating Buddhist, as you said.

Figures or other arts outside Tibet are rarely Tibetan, btw.

 

Not exactly true, there is a population of Tibetans in Dharamshala India who excel at metal work and other Tibetan crafts.

https://www.antiquers.com/threads/tibetan-repousse-dragon.10972/#post-158113

 

I should have phrased that more clearly. I didn't mean Tibetan art outside Tibet, we have a few Tibetan artists here in The Netherlands as well.
What I meant was that figures or other arts outside Tibet are rarely Tibetan. Not the ones made by Tibetans in the diaspora, but the ones we find in shops outside Tibet or Tibetan settlements like the one in Dharamsala.
Many people think non-Tibetan figures are Tibetan, simply because of the romantic notions surrounding the name Tibet.
You wouldn't believe how many people post things on the forum asking if they are Tibetan, when they are Chinese, Indian, Nepalese, Thai. The thing is, there is so much more Chinese, Indian, Nepalese, Thai art out there than Tibetan art. It is a matter of maths, there aren't nearly as many Tibetans in the world as there are Chinese, Indian, Nepalese and Thai.
Besides, Tibetans didn't focus as much on manufacturing art as some other Asian nations did. The traditional saying in the Himalayan countries is that the Bhutanese are farmers, The Nepalese are artists, and the Tibetans are priests.