A RARE WELL-CARVED WOOD SEATED FIGURE OF GUANYIN

Details

A RARE WELL-CARVED WOOD SEATED FIGURE OF GUANYIN
SONG DYNASTY, 12TH CENTURY

The bodhisattva shown seated in maharajalilasana atop a waisted rockwork pedestal draped with an animal skin visible along the back edge, wearing loosely draped robes hung and bound with beaded chains and falling in graceful folds around the body, the long scarf draped over the shoulders looped over the right forearm and trailing onto the pedestal on the left side, with another scarf knotted around the torso below a jeweled necklace, the face carved with gentle expression and the hair dressed in knotted plaits and a looped topknot framed in front by the foliate crown centered by a figure of Amitabha Buddha, traces of gilding, red and blue pigment and white gesso, losses, cracks
23in. (58.5cm.) high

Provenance

C.T. Loo & Cie., Paris, 1950

Lot Essay

The pose of this figure, with right arm languidly resting atop the bent right knee and left leg folded atop the base, as well as the style of the jewelry and clothing, is similar to a larger wood figure (103cm.), dated 12th-13th century, from the Goldschmidt Collection, Berlin, included in the Exhibition of Chinese Art, Berlin, 1929, Catalogue, no. 488. Compare, also, two other similar wood bodhisattvas seated in a variation of this pose, with left leg pendent, and of approximately the same size as the present figure: one dated Tang dynasty or Five Dynasties illustrated in Denver Art Museum, Major Works in the Collection, 1981, p. 13, the other dated Southern Song-Yuan dynasties, 13th century, from the Morse Collection, included in the exhibition, Spirit and Ritual, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 1-September 5, 1982, Catalogue, no. 59, where it is identified as Potalaka Avalokitesvara, "perhaps the most popular deity of the Sung period", who "protected seafarers and was believed to inhabit a rocky isle in the southern ocean"