Complementing Monday's medieval Christian marvel in the daily calendar of the Metropolitan Museum is today's Buddhist treasure, a gilt bronze altar to Maitreya, dated 524 CE. This, at left, isn't the image shown but a picture of a detail I found online, a supporting bodhisattva below the central figure on an angle. I've been besotted by the grace (and beatific smiles) of Wei Dynasty Buddhist art since encountering it in Korean-inspired statues in the temples of Japan's ancient capital Nara.
