A RARE PAINTED WOOD STANDING FIGURE OF A BODHISATTVA

Details

A RARE PAINTED WOOD STANDING FIGURE OF A BODHISATTVA
YUAN DYNASTY

Well carved in a standing position with left hand raised at waist level, a small dish held in the outstretched palm, the right hand holding a section of the long, looped celestial scarf draped over the shoulders, wearing layered skirts belted above and below the waist and falling in graceful folds to just above the bare feet, the chest spanned by a beaded foliate necklace and the head surmounted by a five-part foliate crown with scrolled ends in back above each of the long plaits trailing onto the shoulders, the full face carved with delicate features and contemplative expression, traces of pigment and built-up gilded gesso decoration on the borders, some losses and restoration
59in. (149.9cm.) high

Provenance

Collection of The University of California, Los Angeles

Lot Essay

The present figure is a close stylistic descendent of the wood standing figure of a bodhisattva in the Cleveland Museum of Art dated to the Song dynasty and illustrated in Hai-wai Yi-zhen (Chinese Art in Overseas Collections), 'Buddhist Sculpture' (II), p. 153, pl. 147. Both are standing on a lotus base, although that of the present figure has been reduced; both have the same round face with similar features and both wear a five-part crown and similar robes with long scarves trailing over the arms to the base
Another bodhisattva, of Ming date, that also shares stylistic similarities to the present figure, particularly the upper torso, the configuration of jewelry, hair and tiara and the rounded face, is the wood figure of Puxian seated atop an elephant in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, illustrated by René-Yvon d'Argencé, Chinese, Korean and Japanese Sculpture, Japan, 1974, p. 284, no. 149