Lot Essay
This figure is very closely related in style to the standing figure of Guanyin in the Royal Ontario Museum dated A.D. 1195 and illustrated in Homage to Heaven Homage to Earth, Chinese Treasures of the Royal Ontario Museum, col. pl. 104. The basic physique and details all correspond and point to probably the same hand in execution. The squarish rounded shape of the head, the ridged, winged-shaped brows, straight-gazing eyes, triple-ringed neck, tiara with elements of scrolls rising above a ruyi-shaped centrepiece, the sash tied and draped across the shoulders with raised ridged edge framing the neck area all in the same style on both figures suggesting a date circa 1195 for the present lot.
A Guanyin of similar size, seated in rajalilasana in the Cleveland Museum of Art is illustrated in Hai-Way Yi-Chen, Chinese Art in Overseas Collections, Buddhist Sculpture II, pl. 144, with an overall similarity in the stylistic features listed above together with a pendant necklace much like that on the present lot. The seated posture here allows for a comparison of the schematic treatment of gathered drapery around the shins in addition to the remarkably similar tiara, face and body.
Cf. the Guanyin also seated in rajalilasana in the Victoria and Albert Museum, the conservation and analysis of which is documented by Larson and Kerr, Guanyin, A Masterpiece Revealed. The actual colour scheme of gold draperies with raised dragon and cloud design and flesh colour vermilion and gold is strikingly like that on both the present and following lots. In particular fig. 82 showing the figure after conservation compares very closely; cf. figs. 85 and 86 for a close-up view of the face; fig. 26 for a detail of the knee area. In the Introduction, Kerr mentions another Bodhisattva figure in the Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, cf. fig. 1 also illustrated in colour in Hai-Wai Yi-Chen, op. cit., Buddhist Sculpture, col. pl. 157 where the draperies and scarves are a little more elaborate in treatment, but the overall style and appearance, again, points to the same school of sculpture.
A smaller Guanyin figure also in the Victoria and Albert Museum, provides a comparison, cf. Kerr, op. cit., figs. 87-88. This is much smaller in scale and wears a robe, but otherwise is very similar in the face, neck, tiara and ridged scarf across the shoulders. The stylistic traces of the Jin polychrome are also found in the present figure where the pink flesh, traces of red, blue, green and black are evident in areas of wear and surface degradation.
Cf. another standing figure with very worn polychromy, included in the exhibition, Cina a Venezia, Catalogue, Venice 1986, no. 126, where the date is given as Tang, but is most likely of a date close to the Royal Ontario Museum Guanyin. Cf. again the treatment of all the elements in addition to a tiara (with a lunette) and necklace of nearly similar form to that of the second Boddhisattva figure in the Royal Ontario Museum illustrated in Hai-Wai Yi-Chen, op. cit., Buddhist Sculpture II, col. pl. 161
A Guanyin of similar size, seated in rajalilasana in the Cleveland Museum of Art is illustrated in Hai-Way Yi-Chen, Chinese Art in Overseas Collections, Buddhist Sculpture II, pl. 144, with an overall similarity in the stylistic features listed above together with a pendant necklace much like that on the present lot. The seated posture here allows for a comparison of the schematic treatment of gathered drapery around the shins in addition to the remarkably similar tiara, face and body.
Cf. the Guanyin also seated in rajalilasana in the Victoria and Albert Museum, the conservation and analysis of which is documented by Larson and Kerr, Guanyin, A Masterpiece Revealed. The actual colour scheme of gold draperies with raised dragon and cloud design and flesh colour vermilion and gold is strikingly like that on both the present and following lots. In particular fig. 82 showing the figure after conservation compares very closely; cf. figs. 85 and 86 for a close-up view of the face; fig. 26 for a detail of the knee area. In the Introduction, Kerr mentions another Bodhisattva figure in the Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, cf. fig. 1 also illustrated in colour in Hai-Wai Yi-Chen, op. cit., Buddhist Sculpture, col. pl. 157 where the draperies and scarves are a little more elaborate in treatment, but the overall style and appearance, again, points to the same school of sculpture.
A smaller Guanyin figure also in the Victoria and Albert Museum, provides a comparison, cf. Kerr, op. cit., figs. 87-88. This is much smaller in scale and wears a robe, but otherwise is very similar in the face, neck, tiara and ridged scarf across the shoulders. The stylistic traces of the Jin polychrome are also found in the present figure where the pink flesh, traces of red, blue, green and black are evident in areas of wear and surface degradation.
Cf. another standing figure with very worn polychromy, included in the exhibition, Cina a Venezia, Catalogue, Venice 1986, no. 126, where the date is given as Tang, but is most likely of a date close to the Royal Ontario Museum Guanyin. Cf. again the treatment of all the elements in addition to a tiara (with a lunette) and necklace of nearly similar form to that of the second Boddhisattva figure in the Royal Ontario Museum illustrated in Hai-Wai Yi-Chen, op. cit., Buddhist Sculpture II, col. pl. 161