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Lot Essay
This rare bronze likely originates from the Dali Kingdom, which ruled the area that roughly corresponds with the present-day province of Yunnan from the tenth through thirteenth centuries. Although an independent kingdom, Dali maintained close relations with the contemporaneous Song Dynasty, and was greatly influenced artistically by both the preceding Tang dynasty as well as the art of South and Southeast Asia through the maritime trade routes.
Although Dali bronze images of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (known in Dali as Acouye Guanyin) are perhaps most well-known today, images of the bodhisattva Ksitigarbha were also apparently popular. Ksitigarbha was recognized as one of the principle bodhisattvas of the Buddhist pantheon in Dali, and is included in one of the few remaining paintings from the Dali kingdom, Zhang Shengwen’s sixteen-meter long Kingdom of Dali Buddhist Volume of Painting, which was completed by 1180 (fig. 1). In this essential painting, Ksitigarbha is depicted seated in lalitasana on a low throne, holding a jewel in his left hand and a monk’s staff in his right. A multistranded necklace hangs is draped across his torso, and his head is covered with a tight-fitting hood. An image in bronze, apparently excavated from the site of the Qianxun Pagoda in the city of Dali and illustrated by Zhang Yongkang in A Research on the Sculptures of Da-Li Buddha, Taipei, 2002, p. 47, fig. 54, also corresponds closely with the iconography visible in the Zhang Shengwen painting, only missing the staff, which presumably was separately cast or made from another material.
The present work resembles both the depiction of Ksitigarbha in the Zhang Shengwen painting as well as the Qianxun bronze example. The figure is seated in lalitasana, with the folds of the robe falling around the edge of what would have been a separately cast or carved base. He holds an orb-shaped jewel in his left hand and his right is closed around what would have likely been a staff. In contrast to the Qianxun bronze, which was heavily encrusted, the present bronze has a rich, brownish patina. The present bronze is also significantly larger, at 29.2 cm., than the Qianxun bronze, which is only 11 cm. high. The main difference between the present work and the other depictions of Ksitigarbha in the Dali context is the presence of a crown in the current example. According to the research carried out by Zhang Yongkang in ibid., p. 46, depictions of Ksitigarbha differed slightly in the treatment of the headdress, although it is unclear if others are known with a crown. Certainly, the crown of the present figure closely mirrors those of other known Dali bronzes, such as the gilt-bronze multi-armed Guanyin from the Herbert and Florence Irving Collection sold at Christie’s New York, 20 March 2019, lot 814.
Another Dali bronze image of Ksitigarbha, formerly in a French private collection but now in an Asian collection and exhibited at Christie’s Hong Kong, 25-30 May 2023, is very closely related; similar in size and with the same, rich, dark patina, both with traces of gilt which suggest that they were once gilded, the present work and the Christie’s Hong Kong example must be from the same atelier.
Although Dali bronze images of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (known in Dali as Acouye Guanyin) are perhaps most well-known today, images of the bodhisattva Ksitigarbha were also apparently popular. Ksitigarbha was recognized as one of the principle bodhisattvas of the Buddhist pantheon in Dali, and is included in one of the few remaining paintings from the Dali kingdom, Zhang Shengwen’s sixteen-meter long Kingdom of Dali Buddhist Volume of Painting, which was completed by 1180 (fig. 1). In this essential painting, Ksitigarbha is depicted seated in lalitasana on a low throne, holding a jewel in his left hand and a monk’s staff in his right. A multistranded necklace hangs is draped across his torso, and his head is covered with a tight-fitting hood. An image in bronze, apparently excavated from the site of the Qianxun Pagoda in the city of Dali and illustrated by Zhang Yongkang in A Research on the Sculptures of Da-Li Buddha, Taipei, 2002, p. 47, fig. 54, also corresponds closely with the iconography visible in the Zhang Shengwen painting, only missing the staff, which presumably was separately cast or made from another material.
The present work resembles both the depiction of Ksitigarbha in the Zhang Shengwen painting as well as the Qianxun bronze example. The figure is seated in lalitasana, with the folds of the robe falling around the edge of what would have been a separately cast or carved base. He holds an orb-shaped jewel in his left hand and his right is closed around what would have likely been a staff. In contrast to the Qianxun bronze, which was heavily encrusted, the present bronze has a rich, brownish patina. The present bronze is also significantly larger, at 29.2 cm., than the Qianxun bronze, which is only 11 cm. high. The main difference between the present work and the other depictions of Ksitigarbha in the Dali context is the presence of a crown in the current example. According to the research carried out by Zhang Yongkang in ibid., p. 46, depictions of Ksitigarbha differed slightly in the treatment of the headdress, although it is unclear if others are known with a crown. Certainly, the crown of the present figure closely mirrors those of other known Dali bronzes, such as the gilt-bronze multi-armed Guanyin from the Herbert and Florence Irving Collection sold at Christie’s New York, 20 March 2019, lot 814.
Another Dali bronze image of Ksitigarbha, formerly in a French private collection but now in an Asian collection and exhibited at Christie’s Hong Kong, 25-30 May 2023, is very closely related; similar in size and with the same, rich, dark patina, both with traces of gilt which suggest that they were once gilded, the present work and the Christie’s Hong Kong example must be from the same atelier.