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Lot Essay
This rare sandstone figure is a fine example of the 'International' style in Buddhist art that emerged during the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD) in China, as well as Japan and Korea. In sculpture this style shows the influence of the Indian aesthetic, a sensual yet muscular gracefulness previously absent in Chinese sculpture, creating a synthesis of the two aesthetics which produced sculptures that possess an idealized beauty as well as a contained spiritual presence. This style reached its finest expression during the 8th century at the sandstone caves at Tianlongshan in Shanxi province, Northern China. The soft white sandstone of the site was conducive to the carving of figures that appear to be in the round, although still attached to the wall, and allowed the sculptors to imitate diaphanous fabrics that cling in graceful folds to the body.
The present figure comes from Cave XXI, the largest and one of the most important Tang sites at Tianlongshan, dating between 720-750 AD. It was originally situated on the north wall of the cave as part of a Buddhist trinity, to the right of the main figure of Buddha seated on a draped plinth, now in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Two standing bodhisattvas, as well as heads of the bodhisattvas from this same cave are in various international museums, including several American museums: the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco Museum of Art; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. All are illustrated by H. Vanderstappen and M. Rhie in their important documentary work, 'The Sculpture of T'ien Lung Shan: Reconstruction and Dating', Artibus Asiae, 1965, vol. XXVII, 3, Switzerland, 1965, pp. 189-24, along with sculptures from other caves at Tianlongshan. The authors use archival photographs that show some of the sculptures in situ, as well as later photographs, and where possible identify in which institutions they were located in 1965. The present bodhisattva is shown, fig. 73, in situ in Cave XXI, as well as in the illustration from the 1935-36 London Exhibition of Chinese Art, fig. 76, at which time it was on loan from Sadajiro Yamanaka, New York.
Like the best of 8th century Tang sculpture this regal yet accessible representation of a Buddhist diety successfully transforms Buddhist doctrine into inspirational shape.
The present figure comes from Cave XXI, the largest and one of the most important Tang sites at Tianlongshan, dating between 720-750 AD. It was originally situated on the north wall of the cave as part of a Buddhist trinity, to the right of the main figure of Buddha seated on a draped plinth, now in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Two standing bodhisattvas, as well as heads of the bodhisattvas from this same cave are in various international museums, including several American museums: the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco Museum of Art; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. All are illustrated by H. Vanderstappen and M. Rhie in their important documentary work, 'The Sculpture of T'ien Lung Shan: Reconstruction and Dating', Artibus Asiae, 1965, vol. XXVII, 3, Switzerland, 1965, pp. 189-24, along with sculptures from other caves at Tianlongshan. The authors use archival photographs that show some of the sculptures in situ, as well as later photographs, and where possible identify in which institutions they were located in 1965. The present bodhisattva is shown, fig. 73, in situ in Cave XXI, as well as in the illustration from the 1935-36 London Exhibition of Chinese Art, fig. 76, at which time it was on loan from Sadajiro Yamanaka, New York.
Like the best of 8th century Tang sculpture this regal yet accessible representation of a Buddhist diety successfully transforms Buddhist doctrine into inspirational shape.