Lot 2807
2807
A VERY RARE IMPERIAL EARLY MING LARGE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF CATURBHUJA MANJUSRI
A VERY RARE IMPERIAL EARLY MING LARGE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF CATURBHUJA MANJUSRI
A VERY RARE IMPERIAL EARLY MING LARGE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF CATURBHUJA MANJUSRI
A VERY RARE IMPERIAL EARLY MING LARGE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF CATURBHUJA MANJUSRI
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A VERY RARE IMPERIAL EARLY MING LARGE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF CATURBHUJA MANJUSRI

XUANDE INCISED SIX-CHARACTER PRESENTATION MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1426-1435)

Details
A VERY RARE IMPERIAL EARLY MING LARGE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF CATURBHUJA MANJUSRI
XUANDE INCISED SIX-CHARACTER PRESENTATION MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1426-1435)
The figure is intricately modelled seated in dhyanasana on a double-lotus base with four arms. The upper right hand is welding a sword above his head, and the lower left hand holding a lotus stem supporting a book of the ‘Perfection of Wisdom’, Prajnaparamita Sutra, to one side of the shoulder. The full face with eyes downcast and lips indented to provide a benevolent expression. Adorned with disc-shaped earrings below a foliate diadem, securing the hair that is swept into a topknot. Wearing a thin scarf across the shoulders revealing a bare torso decorated with an elaborate jewellery chain. Similarly decorating the belt around the waist above a gossamer dhoti that gathered in folds around the crossed legs. The lotus base inscribed with Da Ming Xuande nianshi, ‘Bestowed in the Great Ming Xuande Period’. The interior is incised with a partially legible inscription incorporating various numerals.
10 in. (25.5 cm.) high
Provenance
A French private collection, acquired in the early 1960s

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Lot Essay

Although examples bearing a Yongle presentation mark of this four-armed emanation of the Manjusri are known, no other figure inscribed with a Xuande presentation mark appears to have been published. Compare with published Yonglemarked examples such as the figure in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Buddhism Art and Faith, 1985, no. 308; in the Berti Aschmann Foundation of Tibetan Art, illustrated in On the Path to Enlightenment, 1995, no. 67; in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, illustrated in Wisdom and Compassion, 1996, no. 30 and formerly in the Speelman Collection, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7 October 2006, lot 804.

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