尺寸：H. 55.9 cm x W. 47.9 cm x D. 55.9 cm
年代：17世纪 明末清初
质地：铜鎏金
风格：中原
来源：旧金山亚洲艺术博物馆
参阅：外部链接
鉴赏：
The Buddha Shakyamuni as an ascetic

参阅相似的一尊:元代宫廷铜鎏金释迦牟尼佛苦行像(克利夫兰艺术博物馆)

Label:

This figure is extremely thin and intensely concentrated, identifying it as Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha, shown before he achieved enlightenment. After the Buddha abandoned his early life as a prince in order to seek spiritual liberation, he tried many paths, many of them self-punishing and ultimately futile. Here he is shown as a hermit, meditating in the wild and starving himself. Chinese artists rarely depicted the historical Buddha in this state; it was in the ancient region of Gandhara (in what are now Pakistan and northwestern India) that this extreme form of spiritual practice was especially popular in the second and third centuries ce. Figures of this type were produced in China during the Yuan dynasty, during which the Mongols ruled.

Shakyamuni finally found enlightenment through meditation and by practicing the Middle Path, which rejects both self-denial and self-indulgence.